ReadWriteWeb

Last Monday we rolled out a new design on ReadWriteWeb and we received a lot of feedback on it, both positive and negative. Thank you to everybody who commented on the new design, particularly those of you who left detailed critiques. I'll address some of the feedback below, as well as update you on our comments system in general - which had technical issues during the week.

Overall I am still very happy with the design and it achieves the goals that I listed in the announcement post. But as with any Web development project, there is room for more iteration and some tweaking. So I want to assure you that all your feedback will be taken into consideration. Now to the specifics...

Google announced tonight that the new Blogger (nicknamed 'Blogger in Draft') will support OpenID-based commenting. Essentially it means that users of OpenID-enabled services - such as LiveJournal, WordPress and TypeKey - can comment on any Blogger blog using their accounts from those sites, rather than with Blogger/Google accounts.

This is another small but significant step on the way to an open identity system on the Web, something that we here at Read/WriteWeb have been promoting. Incidentally you may be wondering if we will 'eat our own dogfood' and implement OpenID on this blog -- it is in the plan for our big re-design, which is coming very soon!

Thanks David Recordon for the heads up.

I've been thinking a lot about user centric identity over the last few weeks. One of the 5 Big Themes from the Defrag Conference was the importance of user centric identity. As mentioned in that post, we ended up having one of the leading thinkers in this area, Kaliya Hamlin (a.k.a. Identity Woman) on an episode of Read/WriteTalk. Early in the interview, I asked Kaliya to give me the elevator pitch on user centric identity. She responded:

"Really, it’s about giving people the freedom to move around the web with their identity. Just like we move about the world with our bodies. Now I’d see you in one context and then you show up in another place I go “Oh! That’s the same person because they’re walking around in the same body.” So on the web, we just have handles and there has been no standard until very recently where I could move from one context to another context and take that identity that handle with me and would prove that I’m the same person. Of course, giving people the freedom to aggregate across the network of sites. Instead of having a username and password that’s different at every single place you go."

With standards like OpenId, it's great to see user centric identity moving from a concept to a reality. In the rest of this post, we'll explore:

• Why user centric identity is important
• How it fits into some themes we discuss regularly on RWW
• Finally, opportunities for you to get involved

Why is this important? ... Startup Fatigue

I am included in the group of writers at RWW who receive pitches via our email address tips@readwriteweb.com. I've been amazed at the number of innovative web apps being developed to solve real problems. It seems like at least once a week I come across something that I'd be interested in trying out. The problem is that if a site doesn't accept OpenID, it ends up being one more handle and password I need to remember. Keeping track of all these accounts is exhausting. Over time, it has raised the bar for when I'm willing to actually try out a service. I call this effect sign up fatigue. Interestingly, many of the people I talk to seem to be experiencing the same thing.