I've just broken down and logged on to my first OpenID system. I looked through my password collection and found my Yahoo! login. I went to idproxy.net to create myself an OpenID account, and then I updated my own website to include the OpenID links:
<link rel="openid.server" href="http://idproxy.net/openid/server/" /> <link rel="openid.delegate" href="http://pauldoerwald.idproxy.net/" />
I logged on to the only OpenID site that I knew of, simonwillison.net, and it worked perfectly. Because Yahoo! had cookied my browser, I didn't need to enter any password at all. The great thing is that I can change the openid.server and openid.delegate any time I want. I will always be http://pauldoerwald.ca, even if I start using some other OpenID service (perhaps my own!).
I'm looking forward to more OpenID capable sites appearing. Perhaps I'll find time one day to write a plugin (or something) for Mephisto to support OpenID logins. If I'm going to say that online identity is the next big thing, I should throw my weight behind the one I'm going with.
Some readers may find it interesting that a few weeks ago I didn't like the idea of OpenID and now I'm giving it my support. Basically, OpenID appears to be getting some traction. I still stand behind the problems I identified, but better an open, distributed identification system taking hold than a proprietary one.