Hey, Angus Logan here, I'm at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco - there is a great vibe and lots of action. I've been spending time with and learning a ton from some of the open stack crew, Joseph Smarr, David Recordon, and Chris Messina. We've been talking about the technology, adoption, and when Microsoft (we) will roll our preview Open ID and Portable Contacts endpoints into production (nothing to announce right now).
Microsoft is a proponent of open standards through our work in the Open ID foundation and the Open Web Foundation. As these open specifications continue to mature, services such as RPX are great because they provide a stepping stone for developers.
I’m excited to see the announcement that RPX now consumes Windows Live IDs.
RPX delivers both user experience for identity provider selection and a translation layer between many proprietary and standardized protocols used by identity/resource providers.
End-users can spend their time in so many places on the web. The battle for attention is harder than ever. The downside of having limitless choice is the tax of signing in and telling websites about yourself. RPX makes it possible to sign in using one of the many identities a person already has - this includes authentication and profile information (first name, last name, etc.)
Web site owners just need to go to www.rpxnow.com and create an account. As end user data is being shared you need to create a Windows Live App ID and you tell RPX the details of your app ID and specify a privacy statement. You can also use the authentication page co-branding to make the experience somewhat smoother for your end-users. After this you implement some UI on your website, and you should see higher end-user satisfaction and conversion for signing in and profile information.
The Live Services APIs used are Windows Live ID Web Authentication and the Windows Live Contact API. Web Authentication is one of the options third parties have for becoming a relying party of the Windows Live ID identity provider/Microsoft federation gateway. It is built using standard web technologies and techniques such as browser based redirects/form posts. The Windows Live Contact API in this case is being used as a profile API as it exposes the "owner record" of the Windows Live user. To gain permission to the profile & address book Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication (DelAuth) was used. DelAuth provides a few unique controls for users to select certain objects to be shared, and the duration of the access.
Below are some screenshots from www.ladygaga.com which uses RPX:
(Windows Live ID, sign in and delegation stuff you've all seen before)
Angus - this is awesome news. Really very exciting.
I am thrilled about this concept and cannot wait to see what it will mean for the future of information and secure communications. Our chat at Summit was great and this is moving so fast!!! I am excited to see the future of this concept!!!
Wonderful that RPX now supports Windows Live ID.
What I do not like at all though, is that RPX does not allow to customize neither Sign-in URL nor Sign-in UX in the free version. That made me decide not to use RPX for a site I'm working on, some 4 weeks ago, and as long as RPX doesn't change this, I won't use it.
It will be great when Windows Live ID's OpenID preview goes into production so that RPX (and other developers) will have one fewer provider that they need to write custom sign in code for! :)
David,
Our Open ID end point is on a path to get it into production. With over 500 million people using our services every month we need to be judicious around sweeping changes to the service.
-Angus