Identity Battles: OpenID vs. Facebook Connect

[via mindmeister]

RWW has a great post on winning the identity 2.0 war: OpenID vs. Facebook Connect. And while I champion open standards and do think that eventually open will win, I think adoption of this idea of social context on every site will first come through FBC. Just as people were first comfortable surfing the Web from the comfort of the walled AOL garden, I think Facebook's familiarity will give it an edge (initially) in this battle. However, that said, I think open will win the war over time. Just as internet users discovered the big wide world of the Web beyond the boarders of AOL, so too will users become comfortable with the idea of social context outside of Facebook Connect-enabled sites. And with the DP Workgroup working diligently on creating open standards around identity and relationship markup, the idea of a decentralized, socially contextual Web experience isn't too far off:

"Open Source vs. Proprietary technology isn't just about desktop software anymore - now it's about our identities and social connections, all around the web. We've published a mind map below displaying our understanding of the contrasts between these two identity systems. If you'd like to add our thoughts to that map, you can.

This battle isn't about "single sign-on" - it's about the payload that comes with it (friend networks, personal data, maybe more), it's about the developer communities, usability and ownership. It's very important to the future of our user experience online and it's a fascinating study in contrasts." [via RWW]