Re: [webfinger] Vision for Webfinger - what are we doing?

["Paul E. Jones" <[e-mail]>]

Eric,

OpenID is not entirely dead, yet.  I still run my own OpenID OP server 
and use it to log into some sites.  I still allow OpenID logins on 
forums.packetizer.com, too.  It's still in use, but the large sites just 
didn't have enough users using it, so they axed it.  On its heels, 
though, is now OpenID Connect and it will use WebFinger for discovery.  
so, sure... push it :-)

Personally, I can think of a lot of good uses for WebFinger:
* When I log onto a web site, I want the site to grab my name an picture 
automatically.
* If I want somebody to send me bitcoins, I'd much rather give them my 
email address (and I do have that in my WF account)
* My contact info is published via WebFinger, so I don't have to give 
people a lot of info on a business card
* WebFinger will hopefully be used as the starting point for 
auto-provisioning of email clients or other devices and applications 
where one has to enter server and port information

Paul

On 10/14/2013 11:21 PM, Eric Mill wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> I was at a hackathon 
> <http://fedscoop.com/code-dc-calls-furloughed-feds/> today, and spent 
> the day working on Webfinger libraries for Sinatra 
> <https://github.com/konklone/sinatra-webfinger> and Jekyll 
> <https://github.com/konklone/jekyll-webfinger>. It was really 
> productive, but -- at the end of the day, a reporter was there asking 
> everybody questions about their projects.
>
> When he asked what Webfinger was for, I realized that the original 
> easy-to-communicate killer app for Webfinger, easing universal login 
> through OpenID, was 
> <http://productblogarchive.37signals.com/products/2011/01/well-be-retiring-our-support-of-openid-on-may-1.html> 
> dead <https://www.myopenid.com/>. The only thing I could think to say 
> was "Remember OpenID? Before it died? Well, this is a piece of the 
> puzzle to putting something like that back together again."
>
> That didn't feel like a very impressive answer. So, now that OpenID is 
> dead, what's the one line explanation for why Webfinger is important? 
> What's the path forward to making Webfinger something people are 
> incentivized to support?
>
> Should we be pushing really hard to resuscitate OpenID via OpenID 
> Connect? Do we just need to wait for internal lobbying inside of 
> Google/Microsoft/Twitter/etc to pay off in some announcement? I know 
> Webfinger supports more than email lookup -- is there some particular 
> killer app people were envisioning when they lobbied for that feature?
>
> I'm so happy there's finally an RFC, after so many years. I recognize 
> how much work was put in to make that happen, and this shouldn't be 
> taken as a criticism of anyone. I just want to know what others see 
> for the future of Webfinger, and what I should do next.
>
> -- Eric
>
> -- 
> konklone.com <http://konklone.com> | @konklone 
> <https://twitter.com/konklone>
>
>
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