OpenID
If anything is guaranteed to get a resounding no from me, it is anything or anyone promising me that I need only do the minimum to gain the maximum benefit from whatever is on offer. "Don't let you right hand know what your left hand is doing" should pop up automatically on every screen as soon as a computer of any kind is swtiched on. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. I know from personal experience.
I do not believe that there is any site that is altruistic. They are all there to make money or to find information for whatever their agenda may be. The only way to make money or find what it is that you want, is to do the research necessary to work out who your target audience is for whatever your agenda may be.
That is why all governments, organisations, corporations, and less well intentioned ideologies employ highly qualified people to find out what the easiest options are for the majority of people whom they know to be too lazy to do the hard work required to become proficient in any area themselves, hence the focus on "convenience" as the first 'sell,' followed by the second 'sell,' "security" in this instance.
Even thinking about security boggles most people's brains. They would rather have someone or something 'out there' to provide for them, preferably the government, and if it is free, so much the better. "Just set up your own OpenID," they suggest soothingly, "that way no one will be able to hack into it." Yeah, right!
The gut feeling I get from all the readings provided so far, is that Big Brother, Big Business, and Big Bullies would love us to simplify their work for them by supplying them with a simple one-stop tool to track down which sites we are visiting. And the public is filled with indignation at the very thought of camera surveillance invading our privacy - puleeze!
You've guessed it, no OpenID for me. If I cannot keep track of my own business then I am not doing my job of taking responsibility for myself, but rather placing my life in the hands of systems over which I have absolutely no control.
Could the OpenId be the precursor to the microchip implant somewhere in our bodies so that we can be "read" by all and sundry wherever we go and whatever we do - the start to a lesser brave world where we are controlled by techonology whether we like it or not?
All this cosy togetherness smacks of the Emperors' new clothes. Who is going to be innocent enough and therefore honest enough to say that the Emperor is naked?
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