for W3c validation

I would love it if someone actually came through with one internet identification that works– well…EVERYWHERE on the net. I don’t know about you, but I am constantly forgetting passwords (partly because I am too lazy to write them all down). If there weren’t password recovery mechanisms on many sites that I use, I don’t know what I’d do– probably either end up not using the site or continuing to create new accounts.

This would be a great project for the open source community to tackle so as to help avoid the big question- who gets to control such a system? OpenID looks like it might have some traction in trying to be the solution. The hard part is breaking the traditional mold- all companies seem to view their registered users as a key asset for them and don’t seem to be willing to give that up. The great thing about blogs, for consumers, is you can sign up for only what you WANT to receive, when you want to receive it. It takes one click to unsubscribe with no hassle.

Creating an open identification would be super for consumers, but buy-in with sites all over the net will be tough. Especially since becoming such a huge site, do you really think Myspace will let users sign on with an open id? I heard myspace may even be working on a profile that can “follow you around the net” themselves. If someone knows anything about this or has a link to something with details, please let me know!

The questions remain…Who gets to control it? What happens if someone’s only id online gets stolen (afterall, there is sure to be almost everything- from credit card numbers to personal addresses- attached to such a id)? How will data be protected? How will sites interact with the new platform? Will all site subscriptions/content be RSS feeds?

I’ll be waiting (quite unpatiently while I continue to forget passwords) for answers!