Relationship requires identity

Nishant Kaushik:

Let's face it, relationship silos are really just extensions of identity silos.  The problem of having to create and re-create my relationships as I go from site to site mirrors my problem of having to create and re-create my identity as I go from site to site. The Facebook Platform might have one of the better Identity Provider APIs , but all the applications built on it still have to stay within Facebook itself.

Yup.  Which is the primary reason that I've been interested in identity -- it's a fundamental building block for social interactions of all kinds.  And think of what could happen if you could use the Internet as your social network as easily as you can use Facebook today.  As Scott Gilbertson at Wired discovered, it's not hard to replicate most of the functionality; it's the people who are "on" Facebook which makes it compelling.

Tags: identity, silos, openid, facebook, social software, social networks