Sebastian Moleski wrote:
I understand *what* people want to do with it. What I don't understand is *why. What benefit does OpenID provide over just registering with your usual user name and password at any site?
Besides the advantages others have cited (improved security, usability, etc.) OpenID offers the best way to give liquidity to the credentials I have earned as a Wikipedia editor. It would be relatively easy for any website to confirm I am an expert in pre-vertebrate paleontology, for example, by cross-referencing my user id with my edit history. The only missing ingredient is being able to confirm that when I come to a site claiming to be User:XYZ I am in fact User:XYZ .