Wikimedia (Wikipedia) single sign-on

[Rob Lanphier]

Hi folks,

I've sort of kept track of this project from a distance, but I'm very
interested in it.

There's a couple of things I'm interested in bringing up with this
group:

1.  Some Wikimedia (Wikipedia) single-signon work that's just getting
started
2.  A new project I've started called "Spectaclar".  I'll tackle this
one in a separate email to this list.

Regarding Wikimedia single sign-on:  The Wikimedia Foundation currently
has the problem that there are a ton of different servers that they run,
each with their own user databases (e.g. one for each language of
Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikinews, etc).  They are looking to consolidate
the authentication and user id namespace.

There's a spec that's currently underway for this project:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Single_login_specifications

The log of our IRC conversation should show up here soon:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research_Network/Meetings/2005-06-18

I'm only marginally familiar with the OpenID specifications, but it
looks like there's a good fit.  Still, I'm only planning on being a
gentle advocate for use of OpenID in this single sign-on project - i.e.
make sure everyone is aware, but I'm not planning on any hard core
lobbying, nor do I think it's wise for anyone else to.

Still, what I do think would be incredibly useful would be for someone
very familiar with OpenID to provide feedback on the project as
appropriate.  The smart thing for us to do may very well be a two-stage
approach.  Stage 1 would be to solve the immediate problems, and stage 2
would be to achieve OpenID compatibility.  Stage 2 will be much simpler
if the design of Stage 1 has OpenID in mind.

Thus, I'm hoping that some folks here would be interested in reviewing
the materials and providing feedback.  The best place to provide said
feedback is the wikitech-l mailing list:
http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

...as well as on the "Talk" page for the spec itself:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Single_login_specifications

Thanks
Rob