The decision of Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign, and Yahoo! to join the OpenID Foundation generated much attention last week. There were many positive comments on it but also negative, even hate filled ones; but more on that later.
Press Release by IBM Germany
Besides the press release by the OpenID Foundation, which all involved companies used as well, at least IBM also published localized press releases. While looking for something completely different, I have stumbled across the German press release today. At first I was pleasantly surprised to see this, but my positive reaction turned into a negative one rather quickly.
The press release is at least misleading in parts, if not wrong. Here are two quotes from it:
Die fünf Technologieführer gründen den Vorstand der OpenID Foundation, die im Sommer 2007 ins Leben gerufen wurde.
This translates to: The five technology leaders establish the board of the OpenID Foundation, which was brought into being in the summer of 2007.
Well, they establish the board but it was already created in 2007? Hopefully this sounds as strange to everyone reading the press release as it is. But it could also be interpreted that the companies run things at the Foundation. They don’t.
Another quote:
[...] haben Internetnutzer die Möglichkeit, nur mit einem Sign-On alle Webseiten, die OpenIDs unterstützen, zu nutzen. Momentan zählen circa 10.000 Webseiten dazu, darunter AOL, Yahoo und Google.
Translation: [...] With only one sign-on, internet users have the chance to use all OpenID-enabled web sites. Currently there are about 10,000 web sites, AOL, Yahoo and Google being among them.
No, users can’t log in to Yahoo! with an OpenID yet. Also it is rather bold to claim, people were able to log in to Google with an OpenID; it’s just Blogger.
The original, English press release is appended to the German one. So hopefully people read that one as well. While it is too late to change the press release anymore, I will get in touch with IBM Germany for this reason, I guess.
Hate filled Comments
The other day I mentioned that there are some concerns about OpenID in Germany and that has definitely not changed since then; actually it got worse, I think. I mentioned the articles on Der Spiegel and on Heise already, and the comments show that there is more than skepticism. People ask if RFID chips were next to control users’ surf behavior, and some even go as far as to say that also the CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA, and Homeland Security have become members of the Foundation.
Obviously those comments don’t have to be taken seriously. However a company like Microsoft is a red rag to many people here: Microsoft=evil. And if Microsoft is involved with OpenID, OpenID is evil as well. That’s the logic of some people. So a press release like the one from IBM Germany is grist to the mill of those guys.
However many people fear increased surveillance in Germany, and they are not to blame when having a look at all the (proposed) measures taken by the government. Those fears have to be considered when marketing OpenID.
Tags: AOL, Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Germany, Google, IBM Germany, internet users, Microsoft, OpenID Foundation, RFID chips, technology leaders, Yahoo
