FoxBoom!

So I logged into myOpenID to leave a comment on LiveJournal, and for the first time I noticed that support for Information Card has been added.

An “Information Card” is a chunk of information which represents an identity. You could have an Information Card with your name and e-mail address for forum posting, a separate card with your credit card details for shopping, and one with a pseudonym for sharing photos of your ass. Whenever a web applications needs to know who you are, a dialog pops up with all your cards in, and you choose how you want to be identified. No username, no password. If you want the sordid technical details, I’d suggest you start in the MSDN.

Information Cards have been implemented in the .NET Framework 3/Windows Vista as CardSpace, and is available for Mac OS X/Firefox as Digital Me.

And hey, it works!

1. Install an Information Card manager if you need one, and create a card.
2. Log into myOpenID the old-fashioned way.
3. Click “Account Settings”, then “Authentication Settings”, then “Add an Information Card”.
4. Your Information Card manager should pop up, and ask which card you want to use to log into myOpenID. Pick one!
5. Et voila, you’re done. If you sign out of the site, then go back to the “sign in” page, you’ll see the old username/password fields, plus a “Sign in with an Information Card” link. Click it, and your Information Card selector will pop up again. Just confirm who you are, and you’re in.

Of course, this isn’t limited to just myOpenID. Well, I mean, it kinda is right now because this is the first implementation I’ve actually seen, but — hey! If Information Cards take off then we’ll see the end of phishing attacks and forgotten passwords, then we can get on with worrying about other stuff instead.