[uf-discuss] Cross-network identification (Was: OpenID)

[Scott Reynen]

On Feb 20, 2007, at 6:56 PM, John Panzer wrote:

> Scott Reynen wrote:
>> On Feb 20, 2007, at 3:24 PM, Thom Shannon wrote:
>>
>>> Forgive me if this is going over old ground, I just joined this  
>>> list and
>>> couldn't find what I was looking for on the wiki. Are there any
>>> particular conventions emerging for embedding an OpenID into a  
>>> hCard?
>>> The openid-brainstorming page mentions using hCard on providers  
>>> profile
>>> pages etc, but I was thinking there should be a way to have your  
>>> OpenID
>>> on other profiles that can easily be consumed, allowing someone  
>>> to see
>>> you on social network A and add you on their social network B  
>>> based on
>>> you using the same OpenID.
>>>
>>> I'm guessing it would be as simple as <a class="url fn openid"
>>> href="http://ts0.com">? Just wanted to know what others are doing.
>>
>> I think that looks a lot like what Ryan King recently suggested  
>> for UID+URL.  It's not in the wiki yet, but you should be able to  
>> find it by searching the email archives for "UID+URL".
> Is UID intended to be more general than indicating "more  
> authoritative hCard"?

UID is not intended to indicate authority at all, just sameness.   
Here's the purpose of UID from vCard:

> To specify a value that represents a globally unique
> identifier corresponding to the individual or resource associated
> with the vCard.

So if two hCards have the same UID, they must refer to the same  
person, because otherwise it wouldn't be globally unique.  And I  
think that solves the problem Thom described above, unless I'm  
missing why it needs to be specific to OpenID.

> Or do you mean that the overall concept is similar, not necessarily  
> that rel="uid url" is a solution?

It looks like a solution to me.

> I'm thinking here of cases where the target may be an OpenID, but  
> not necessarily provide an hCard.

UIDs do not need to point to hCards.  Nor do they need to be  
OpenIDs.  They can do both, but the only requirement is that they be  
globally unique and correspond to the subject of the hCard.  And that  
minimal requirement seems to be just enough to solve this problem  
without worrying about what, if anything, is on the other end of the  
UID.

Peace,
Scott