Time to Act!

Did you know that a vote is on at the OpenID Foundation to approve an initial implementer’s draft of OpenID Connect?

Your action is required.

If you haven’t looked at these specs yet,  go to http://openid.net/connect.    If you have only limited time, check out the Basic Client Profile to get an idea of what we’re talking about, or look at Nat Sakimura’s OpenID Connect in a Nutshell.

If you don’t even know what I’m talking about,  you need to go find out.  OpenID Connect is an identity layer on top of OAuth 2.0.   It abandons the redirect-based structure of OpenID 2.0 completely, and instead embraces the API security layer.   While OAuth 2.0 takes care of the mechanism of asking for a token and using that token,  OpenID Connect creates a scope that protects a standardized set of identity services:  these services provide roughly the same set of attributes, authentication context, and session expiry information that you would get in a SAML assertion.

SAML, OAuth 2.0, and OpenID Connect, when taken together, allow identity and issuer/session information to become a known common quantity, traded either on the front channel or the back channel, consumable by the largest enterprises and the simplest mobile applications, and secured at any level of assurance.

If you are already an OpenID Foundation member, you simply need to visit a website, login with your openid, and cast your vote.  Go to https://openid.net/foundation/members/polls/62 to cast your vote.

If you aren’t an OpenID Foundation member, becoming a member is simple and affordable, you can join as an individual for USD $25.  Visit https://openid.net/foundation/members/registration to join, and then you too can cast a vote.

You only have 5 more days, voting closes on February 15th,  do not wait until the last minute!