The openid.org domain should be transferred to the OpenId Foundation (either for free, or for a fee), and should not be an independent OpenId Provider.

See also:

http://openid.org/
http://daveman692.livejournal.com/303158.html

It's really up to the owner, isn't it? I'm no domain squatter, but it seems to me if you own th domain it's yours to decide what to do with it. The OpenID.org guy is even being a good citizen and giving credit where it's due. I don't see a problem here gang. Granted it would be nice if he turned it over to the foundation, but I don't think there is any reason to beat him up on blogs about it. He seems like a nice enough fellow. Just look at all the links and cred he's giving to the community.

What exactly am i doing wrong here? I know you would like to own the domain (i'd like to own steven.com, but someone is sitting on the domain with it doing nothing), but why not own all the openid.XYZ domains and so on?

I'm hoping the work i have put in will actually help openid adoption as i think it's a very cool thing that's being done.

I'm just like all the other openid developers.

Thanks Reobot - i've put links on the front page to the key sites. Doing my best to please.

The logic here seems to be that Steven should stop doing what he's doing with that domain so the foundation can do more or less the exact same thing with it, for the basic reason that, well, they're swell guys, and he's being mean by having the temerity to use the domain he payed for in an appropriate fashion. Sorry guys, but that doesn't wash.

I have nothing against the domain owner personally. In fact, if he wants to maintain ownership of that domain, I agree that this is fine -- he *is* the rightful owner, after all.

The objection I have is that the domain owner is (or appears to be) operating an OpenId Provider in a domain space (openid.org) that most people would assume is part of, and sactioned by, the official OpenId Foundation.

In reality, this OP is not officially sanctioned by the OpenId Foundation. Worse, the domain owner is getting undue OP credibility from a trademark and brand that he does *not* rightfully own. I consider this to be a mis-use of this particular .org domain space.

All in all, the operation of the OP in the openid.org domain space is my only objection, not the ownership of the domain (perhaps I should have worded the claim differently, but that's why I made sure to put some verbiage about transferring the domain for a fee in the claim).

So your objection is not that he owns the domain, but rather that he has the audacity to think that just because he owns it he can do whatever he likes with it?

My opinion is that in order for OpenID to survive, someone at the Foundation (David, perhaps?) needs to seize power as a BDFL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDFL ) or, failing that, it will need to be forked or usurped. Unlike many of the folks on the OpenID lists that I read (I'll admit that I'm only on general and marketing, not on specs), Stephen seems to have a practical idea of what OpenID is being used for and the kind of features that will aid in more widespread adoption.

That said, what I've read about the history of the exchanges between the Foundation and Steven (Sorry I spelled it wrong in the last comment!) makes it sound like Steven has been disingenuous and underhanded in their dealings, which is something to be deplored. If that's true, it would do a lot for him to put himself right in my eyes if he called a lot more attention to the fact that "This is NOT the official OpenID site."

OpenID is a trademark. The person who gets to the domain first does NOT secure lifetime ownership. You can lose it, quite easily. Look it up