How can OpenID enable Web2.0 and Gov2.0?

From the White House to Japan – they all bet on open source.

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OpenID is a great solution to answer some of the data privacy concerns related to the mass adoption of intrusive technologies (geolocalisation, biometry, RFID tags, etc) and social media. But its mission goes well beyond data privacy.

OpenID allows you to use an existing account to sign in to multiple websites, without needing to create new passwords. It helps to accelerate sign up process at your favorite websites, to reduce frustration associated with maintaining multiple usernames and passwords, to gain greater control over your online identity, and, finally, to minimize password security risks.

OpenID was created in the summer of 2005 by an open source community which is under the stewardship of the OpenID Foundation.

You might not know it yet, but you are probably using one of the existing one billion OpenID enabled user accounts. For instance, if you have a Yahoo ID, you can use it to sign in to Flickr. Likewise, if you have a Google Account, you can sign in to Blogger with it. Both Google Account and Yahoo IDs are OpenIDs.

You may choose to associate information with your OpenID that can be shared with the websites you visit, such as a name or email address. You control how much of that information is shared with the websites you visit. But other than your provider, no website ever sees your password, so you don’t need to worry about an insecure website compromising your identity.

Today, there are apparently over 50,000 websites accepting OpenID for logins, such as Facebook. But the cellular telecom industry seems to have developed a taste for OpenID, especially in Japan.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, Japan’s mobile content and commerce amounts to JPY1,352,400,000,000 (approx. US$15M) and is showing 17% growth even under stagnant market conditions. But the success of mobile commerce in the country is difficult to replicate to non-handset world, notably PC.

Therefore, the Ministry has spent some JPY12 billion (approx. US$1.3M) in funding the “ID Platform Federation Forum”, formed by 22 Japanese companies including NTT docomo, KDDI, Sony or NEC. The aim of the Forum is to expand the success of the identification and payment service capability from the mobile arena into the wider internet – using OpenID as the underlying technology.

In early March, NTT Docomo – the largest mobile operator in Japan – made the first announcement. The operator has close to 50 million users who have subscribed to its i-mode platform to access media content on their handsets. Every docomo user has an identifier called i-modeID which enables them to sign on to the mobile sites and make one-click payment. These kind of features were one of the reason for the great success of the mobile commerce in Japan. For PC, docomo has been offering a separate identifier called “docomo ID” but since it remained independent of “i-modeID”, it did not enjoy the same kind of popularity.

This situation was changed by linking the two identifiers by OpenID. NTT Docomo now expects that the payment on the PC sites through “i-mode payment service” would accelerate the contents sales through PC.

OpenID has also recently partnered with the White House which was looking to enable its American citizens to safely and easily engage with government websites. But more importantly, the real goal is to increase citizen participation, involvement, and direction of the governing process itself – without sacrificing either security or privacy.

Don Thibeau – Executive Director, OpenID Foundation – believes that a solution such as OpenID can help many industries and governments to become more efficient. Thibeau explains that what we call web2.0 or gov2.0 starts by enabling hundreds of millions of computer users to create and share content and technology. In his own words:

As we rebuild our economy, I do hope we keep in mind the value of openness, especially in industries that have rarely had it. Whether it’s in health care reform or energy innovation, the largest payoffs will come not from what the stimulus package pays for directly, but from the huge vistas we open up for others to explore.