Do you think that open standards, data portability and questions of online identity are important? We do; we think these issues are the foundation upon which many of the most exciting and important online innovations are being built.
That’s only going to be more true in the future, so if you’d like to have a say in how it all goes down – now’s the time to get involved. The OpenID Foundation is one of the leading organizations in the new standards world and it’s having its first ever election of community board members this month. Nominations close Monday and the voting begins on Wednesday.
There are big issues on the table right now and the outcome of the election is going to make a big difference in the future of the internet. The Foundation has had incredible success in the past year but it needs your help to determine its direction in the future.
Individuals will have to pay a $25 Foundation membership fee in order to vote, but this author just paid his and is looking forward to pulling the virtual voter’s lever. Nominees so far are listed below.
What Are the Issues?
OpenID usability, getting major players to respect incoming OpenID and not just authenticate their own users elsewhere with OpenID, the personal data payload that travels with OpenID and many other difficult questions remain unanswered, despite all the progress the Foundation and other organizations have made in the last year.
A year ago this week we wrote a post saying that OpenID was in serious trouble. One year later, the situation seems to have improved quite a lot. That’s thanks not just to the work of the OpenID Foundation, but they deserve a large part of the credit.
The protocol is far from out of the woods, though, and so this election is going to be an important one.
Who’s Been Nominated?
So far twelve people have been nominated. Once you register as a Foundation member, you can see the nominees and their position statements. More nominations will likely occur before this weekend is over. Seven of the following twelve total number of people nominated by Monday will get positions on the board. Here’s who’s been nominated so far.
Johannes Ernst – founder and CEO of startup Netmesh
David Recordon – is from SixApart and is one of the most publicly visible members of the OpenID community
Mike Kirkwood – CEO of iPhone-centric medical patient data service Polka
Eric Sachs – Product Manager at Google
Snorri Giorgetti – OpenID Foundation’s European Representative
Eran Hammer-Lahav – Open Web Evangelist at Yahoo! and OAuth lover
Allen Tom – Architect, Yahoo! Membership
Scott Kveton – Current OpenID Foundation Chair and VP Open Platforms at Vidoop
Nat Sakimura – Identity tech wonk from Japan
Brian Kissel – CEO of JanRain, makers of MyOpenID.com
John Bradley – OpenID security wonk
Martin Atkins – an OpenSocial and identity developer
Which seven of those people do you want driving the future of the OpenID Foundation? Register as a member, read their policy statements and you can have your hopes for this important technology paradigm recognized.
