OpenID provider confusion

Just discovered that by using different OpenID credentials to a service provider (Twitterfeed) I had effectively created two accounts without realising it. This occurred because they had also changed their user interface which led to an assumption that I’d “lost” my feeds … so I created a new set, with the credentials I had supplied.

So the problem was that there is no cross-validation between accounts by the service provider – good thing; but the user (me) was unaware that I had an account under a different set of OpenID credentials.

This has led me to realise that I must consolidate my use of OpenID to just one provider and look at all the services I get using OpenID credentials and make sure I’m using just that one. So the question is which one should I use?

Should I use Google, or Yahoo – I have accounts with both of them; should I use WordPress or Blogger – same for them too. Or should I use an independent provider? If so, which one? Or should I grasp the nettle and see if I can setup my domain to be an OpenID provider for me and my family.

Advice please?

Giving ME away!

Being on leave, with nothing to do apart from sit and think is great fun! It allows you to pick a tweet and reflect, and then reply in a more considered manner.

Another tweet this afternoon from @elsua, provided below …

Wish people’d understand a single line in your Twitter profile, i.e. your nick, is not going anywhere. Tell us some more about you! Pic, bio

… made we wonder. Perhaps somebody must have tweeted something that Luis Suarez felt was interesting enough to wonder “Who is this? Do they have credibility?” However, the truth of the matter is that many of us twitter and blog on the sidelines, we’re actually micro-publishing to a community that knows us, not broadcasting to the world. In so doing we’re interested if others come to read what we’ve written, but that’s really not our mission. And so, we don’t give away too much about ourselves, just in case the context of our communications is misrepresented.

When I tweet, or blog on this site, I do so in my own name, not as a representative of the organisation that employs me – as I’ve said previously – that I’ll do on the corporate blogging platform. So on twitter, I don’t give myself away, however a Direct Message to me, or a little bit of detective work, will soon reveal who I really am.