PROPOSAL: rename Identity Provider to OpenID Provider

Dick Hardt dick at sxip.com
Wed Oct 18 22:05:17 PDT 2006


(writing this up so that it can go in David's proposal wiki :-)

Motivation:

* Liberty specifications use the term Identity Provider (IdP) to  
refer to a site that provides any kind of identity assertion about  
the user, and this term has come to have that general meaning in the  
market. Since OpenID IdP only asserts that a user has an OpenID, this  
leads to confusion about what an OpenID IdP actually does.

* When asserting parties are introduced into the OpenID  
specifications at a later time, they will also be IdPs, but will need  
a different name since they are not doing what an IdP does in OpenID.

Proposal:

Rename Identity Provider to OpenID Provider in the spec

Pros:
	+ clarity on what the IdP in the protocol does
	+ will provide clarity in future

Cons:
	- some simple search and replace needs to be done on the spec
	- people in the OpenID Community are used to using the term IdP




More information about the specs mailing list