OpenID and OAuth: As the URL Turns

In Phil Windley’s initial IIW wrap-up, he alluded to the soap-opera nature of the OpenID wrangling that went on last week. It’s an apt description.

In the spirit of real ones:

Margo wanted Parker to get an attorney before making a confession but he insisted on telling the truth anyway. Margo quickly called Jack with the latest development so he and Carly rushed to the station. Jack ordered his son to keep quiet but Parker said he was going through with his confession. Carly was brokenhearted that Parker couldn’t be silenced and Margo took Jack off the case. [ATWT]

…I present the soap-opera synopsis of the goings-on:

David showed up at the Mountain View party with OpenID Connect, which had been hanging around with OAuth in a way that seemed promiscuous. Having insisted last year that it was ready to change, OpenID quickly got busy. OpenID Artifact Binding was brokenhearted that its quiet yet effective nature wasn’t enough to get it noticed. UMA and CX couldn’t help putting in their two cents when they heard what the problem was.

The OpenID specs list discussion is now hopping, and so far it’s been relatively free of pique and getting more productive as people understand each other’s use cases and requirements better. Now we just need to come up with a list of in-scope ones…and realize that the best ideas for solving each one could come from anywhere.

So: Can we try and combine the grand vision and breadth of community of the OpenID.next process, the rigor and security of OpenID AB, and the speed and marketing savvy of OpenID Connect — rather than (ahem) the speed and rigor of the OpenID.next process, the grand vision and marketing savvy of OpenID AB, and the security and breadth of community of OpenID Connect?

UPDATE on 10 July 2010: This post has been translated into Belorussian by PC.