OpenID allows you to use one login across multiple websites and applications, thereby reducing the hassle of maintaining multiple accounts. Adoption of OpenID by websites has been slow, and that has plagued promoters of OpenID for quite a while.
OpenID is not twiddling their thumbs and idling, however. In a program called OpenID Code Bounty, they offer $5000 to the first ten web applications which integrate OpenID (of which only three have been claimed – by Plone, Drupal and dotnetnuke).
They have a few sponsors to take care of the money bit – VeriSign, JanRain, Four Kitchen Studios, Cordance, ooTao, Zooomr, claimID, ZP3, International Webmasters Association, NetMesh, SXIP, Opinity, Six Apart and AmSoft.
WordPress.org (self-hosted WordPress) has had a plugin for OpenID, but I wonder why they haven’t integrated it into the core and claimed the bounty money. In fact, OpenID specifically mentioned in their details that they hope to get many open-source projects to take up the integration (one of which is WordPress).
Of course, Automattic might have their own reasons for not integrating it – can you think of any reason off the top of your head?
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