[Opensim-dev] Mantis#2816 patch and openid

[James Stallings II]

Excellent comments Ryan!

I think it important to note that the one thing that truly prevents the
industry from taking this technology seriously as a pan-network 3D web is
this issue of identity portability.

As unfortunate as it may be, Linden Labs from their earliest days (in the
interest of accomodating the 'players') has worked hard to preserve
anonymity - which, on the other face, is obscuring identity. Thus, globally
identifying users was seen as a Bad Idea.

I think that OpenID represents a first and best-effort at correcting this
problem, and will provide us with opportunities for interoperation that
demonstrate a reasonable level of concern with protection of identities and
property, something that can only produce a greater level of comfort for
just about everyone but the ageplay crowd.

Cheers,
James

On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 7:43 AM, Ryan McDougall <sempuki1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> There are a couple BSD-based viewers that one could modify to support
> OpenID.
>
> With the standard viewer even, I think lulurun from 3Di had a hack
> where he used the username field to reconstruct an OpenID. reX does
> something similar, although it is not yet an OpenID, but currently
> tied to our own Authentication server, which we could get rid of and
> replace with OpenID provider.
>
> Cheers,
>
> On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 3:39 PM, James Stallings II
> <james.stallings at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I am not JHurliman, but I have actually given this topic considerable
> > thought. As I see things, there probably is no way to incorporate OpenID
> > directly into the existing client.
> >
> > I dont let this concern me overmuch - I think constraining ourselves to
> > existing client functionality is a certain way to allow our friends at
> > Linden Labs to remain the defacto industry leaders of this technology.
> >
> > Now that that is out of the way, there are certain methodologies that I
> > could employ to put an OpenID capability to work today:
> >
> > Scenario 1: Keep all accounts 'deactivated' by default (even when they
> are
> > valid, active accounts), activating them only at such time as the OpenID
> > authorization method I've embedded into the splash page is completed.
> Once
> > that embedded authorization procedure is completed, the account would be
> > enabled, and login would procede as normally occurs with the client.
> >
> > Scenario 2: All login procedures as per usual; OpenID kept on file for
> for
> > positive identification on an as-needed basis where such things are
> > relevant: access to mature content, proof of ownership of assets,
> resolution
> > of complaints, etc.
> >
> > Scenario 3: External authentication layers that might be built on top of
> > e.g., Hypergrid or OGP, which cant really be explored at present because
> we
> > have no support for authenticating via OpenID.
> >
> > These are just three that occur to me off the top of my head. I think all
> > represent use cases that are desirable here and now. We simply lack the
> > tools to implement them at present. All that remains is that some
> > trailblazing group put the tools in the hands of users.
> >
> > Will we blaze that trail? or will we read about who already has on the
> > Linden blog?
> >
> > I say +100, get this patch in trunk. ASAP.
> >
> >
> > Cheers
> > James
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 7:03 AM, Sean Dague <sdague at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hurliman, John wrote:
> >> >
> >> > A clarification on the patch, this adds OpenID provider support to
> user
> >> > server. It does not turn the user server into an OpenID consumer. I
> think
> >> > OpenID grid login is a very interesting discussion that should take
> place on
> >> > the mailing list, but what this does is allow you to prove ownership
> of an
> >> > avatar on a grid. You could leave a comment on a blog using your
> avatar
> >> > identity, for example. The main reason for the patch is to pave the
> way to
> >> > building a secure hypergrid. Now that OpenSim is evolving into a
> federated
> >> > grid model it's critical to be able to carry identity around the
> metaverse.
> >> > I also have a patch for the distributed asset service that
> authenticates all
> >> > inventory and asset transactions against the user server and allows
> >> > whitelisting/blacklisting of foreign grids (will be committed very
> soon
> >> > after some cleanup).
> >>
> >> Could you explain that authentication flow with the existing client?
> >> While this patch doesn't hurt anything, I'd really like to understand
> >> where this is going before we commit something like this.
> >>
> >>        -Sean
> >>
> >> --
> >> Sean Dague / Neas Bade
> >> sdague at gmail.com
> >> http://dague.net
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> >> https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-dev
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > ===================================
> > The wind
> > scours the earth for prayers
> > The night obscures them
> >
> > http://osgrid.org
> > http://del.icio.us/SPQR
> > http://twitter.com/jstallings2
> > http://www.linkedin.com/pub/5/770/a49
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
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-- 
===================================
The wind
scours the earth for prayers
The night obscures them

http://osgrid.org
http://del.icio.us/SPQR
http://twitter.com/jstallings2
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/5/770/a49
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