Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign, Yahoo! join OpenID board

[SticKer]

Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign, and Yahoo! have joined the board of the OpenID Foundation, the organisation set up to facilitate access to multiple online services with a single username and password.

The move follows Yahoo! last month announcing that its accountholders would be able to use any web site supporting OpenID without creating a separate username and password. A year ago, Microsoft pledged to integrate OpenID 2.0 with the CardSpace identity management systems developed in conjunction with Windows Vista.

While the OpenID Foundation serves a stewardship role around the community’s intellectual property, the Foundation’s board itself does not make any decisions about the specifications the community is collaboratively building. However the Foundation claimed that "By bringing on these companies and their resources, the OpenID Foundation will now be able to better serve the needs of the entire OpenID community. In 2008, we can expect to see a larger focus on making OpenID even more accessible to a mainstream audience, the development of a World-wide trademark usage policy (much like the Jabber Foundation and Mozilla have done), and a larger international focus on working with the OpenID communities in Asia and Europe."

At the beginning of 2006, there were less than 500 websites where OpenID could be used. Today there are well over 10,000, according to the Foundation.

Source: itwire.com

[online.education]

If Microsoft acquires Yahoo, then they'll surely have a single sign-on at some point?

[SticKer]

yup and with open id coming into picture we would have to wait and see how it works out.