In my first act as Chief Platform Architect for Plaxo, I have integrated two open standards into Plaxo that I care deeply about: OpenID and microformats. They’re both live now, and we’ve issued a press release to help fan the flames. OpenID will let anyone sign up for Plaxo without having to create a separate Plaxo-specific password or fill out their account info again. Microformats lets you share your public profile and public calendar data in an open, machine-readbale way. Both standards help you the user maintain control over your identity and personal information and take it with you wherever you go.
I’m really greatful to have been a part of these passionate communities of user advocates over the past year or so. In both cases, my involvement started when someone personally reached out to me to say “hey, Plaxo should get involved with these emerging standards”. In the case of OpenID, it was Kaliya Hamlin, who has done wonders to catalyze and organize the various user-centric identity efforts out there. In the case of microformats, it was Chris Messina, who of his own accord took the train down to Plaxo from SF to explain what microformats were and why we should care.
To both of you, and the countless others that I’ve talked to since then, let me say thank you. You reached me. I completely share the vision of an open social web in which users are in control of their data and they can use it on any web site they come to or from. Plaxo gets it too, and our mission is clear: to knock down every wall we find and free your data until nobody owns who you know except you. Our weapons of choice are continued and expanded support of open standards like these, as well as the know-how and resources to get at your data in and out of tight spots that might otherwise be closed to you. We’ve already done it for Outlook, Mac, Thunderbird, AOL, Yahoo, Google, LinkedIn, mobile phones, and probably a few more, but you ain’t seen nothing yet.
And to our users: tell us how we can do more. What sites and tools and services do you use where being able to keep your updated contact info and contact list would make your lives better? Where are your friends and colleagues generating cool content online that you want to keep up with? We can help. That’s what we do. And we’d like to do it a whole lot more.
Speaking of which, while I was implementing OpenID support for Plaxo, I took copious notes and wrote them up in a step-by-step recipe guide so any other existing web site with users would have an easy way to do the same. Now you have no excuse not to OpenID-enable your site–it’s quick and straightforward, and a sign of respect and trust to your users. So get to it, and let me know how I can help!
–Joseph Smarr, Chief Platform Architect
