Jorgen Thelin just posted Windows Live ID OpenID Community Technology Preview Status Update (August 2009).
Community Technology Previews must be expected to come and go. They are used to get feedback from developers, validate ideas, disappear and come back. Sometimes they are even used to prove the feature/service is economically viable and is what developers/users want & need. Jorgen provided an update on the future:
Currently, we do not have a schedule that I can publicly share for when we will release full Production support of OpenID for Windows Live ID users, but rest assured that we are working actively to provide OpenID functionality to all of our 500+ million Windows Live ID users!
In addition to multiple entry-points, and being able to explain unique vs. static identifiers to end users – the main challenge was aliasing:
In the CTP, Windows Live ID users were required to create an OpenID alias (such as “http://openid.live.com/john”) attached to their account, and then to use that alias not just at the OpenID relying party site, but also as the way to identify themselves to the Windows Live ID OP. When arriving at the OP sign-in screen, users were required to enter their OpenID alias (instead of their normal Windows Live ID user name) plus the password (or one of their other associated credentials, such as an Information Card) from their main Windows Live ID account.
We had envisaged that using an alias for OpenID sign-in could provide some separation of the two identity networks. However, the usability model for this approach has turned out to be unfeasible and/or just plain confusing to users!
Read more about it along with the other lessons
Earlier today when I saw a ton of twitter/facebook spam from an app called 140blood I thought it was some type of hack again. It looks like the app is accessing the service legitimately but is just malicious/spammy. Wouldn’t it be cool to report abuse on the consent screen?
Suggestion: on Consent screens, aside from links to Privacy statements, there should be a link to “report this app as abusive”. Therefore People who land on delegation screens because they have followed their friend’s guidance, can realize “this isn’t what I was expecting” and start to tarnish that app’s reputation to the point of it being pulled/any damage reversed.
I just did a quick interview with mynetx as part of a Windows Live and You series This blog is awesome: it has the Messenger Web Toolkit running on it so you can see if he is online or even sign in using the Web Bar.
The interview covered some of my background, mostly stuff about Windows Live today, and a few attempts to get my to talk about what is coming in the future :)
Check it out or check out the others
Ever wanted to see what’s possible (and even write code) with web controls just by clicking a few times in the browser? That is exactly what you can do with the Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit Interactive SDK (WLT iSDK).
You can:
http://messenger.mslivelabs.com
Sign in
Links to MSDN / Additional documentation
Display picture control with presence
Personal Message (status) display and editing inline
Contact list view
Chris Messina thinks there is a revenue opportunity in branded namespaces –
For a mere $50 minimum donation ($25 for students), you can own a limited edition URL and profile from Creative Commons that identifies you to the world and provides a compelling revenue opportunity for the non-profit foundation.
Do people really care that much about their namespace from a I'm hip, I'm in this namespace – IMO this won’t convert to a big enough revenue opportunity to care about.
There is only a revenue opportunity if your namespace is soooo attractive and people will use it as their primary identity (being one of many secondary identities means it soon will become irrelevant) but I’m just not sure how many there are and how sustainable it is.
I don’t want multiple identities/addresses to show my affinity with multiple organizations, and I certainly wouldn't pay for it. e.g. (simplified to email addresses) angus@goseahawks.com and then in the basketball season I become angus@stormvip.com.
With all that said, if the namespace is attractive enough and the identity is unique/easy, sure – I’d probably pay (e.g. angus@aussie.com) – but I would only pay for one.
last thought - How well did Skype selling fashionable area code numbers e.g. 212 (Manhattan) numbers to people in not so hip places?
I just got an email from Virgin America and one of the interesting things was “Tweet this” button
They let me share their email campaign easily with the masses.
If you think about how email usually gets shared, people forward it – to a limited number of friends.
Allow people to take an action straight from their inbox to tweet it out for the email marketer thats a fairly big return. A return which could be passed back onto the sharer. If each “share” had a unique link, the marketer then knew I was a “sharer” and I drove X amount of conversions, so then they kept on sending me great deals (or even better, throwing me in some rewards program).
Whatcha think?