The blogging about WordPress.com being an OpenID provider, but not (yet?) an OpenID consumer, goes on. We can see (here and here, for example) the conversation turning to the question of whether a site should be a provider only.
My main thoughts on the issue are:
- There’s no lack of OpenID providers.
- There is a lack of OpenID consumers. To put it another way, not accepting OpenID is beginning to seem like a lack in many web services.
- Therefore being a provider only doesn’t seem to be much of a favor to the world, or even to one’s users.
- However, being a provider only may be a step along the way to full (i.e. provider and consumer) OpenID support.
- I think that the arguments for full support apply with particular force to WordPress/Automattic, given their declared support for standards, openness, etc.
- I’m too busy to sprinkle this post with all the relevant linkage, some of which would be in the results of searching this blog for openid.
If you have not seen it yet, I think you will be interested in the conversation around OpenID in the most recent WordPress podcast and its comments.