Wikimedia (Wikipedia) single sign-on

[Martin Atkins]

Jean-Luc Delatre wrote:
> Quoting from this URL
> 
> "The discussed model is different from Brion's original proposal insofar
> as local user accounts will stop working after the migration date."
> 
> That may be a single signon with respect to different consumers but this
> is not a distributed system anymore!
> Enforcing a single namespace for user names (proper) makes things easier
> for implementors but completely defeats the goals of OpenID (as far as I
> understand them!)
> 

Well, if Wikimedia itself provides one namespace but still does it using
OpenID, there's no reason why (for example) a LiveJournal user couldn't
log in to Wikipedia and make changes under that identity. Wikimedia
would just become another identity provider, and the various MediaWiki
sites would become consumers. The two wouldn't be tied together.

I don't really see the harm. If OpenID catches on, perhaps at some point
most of the wikimedia contributors will have identities outside of
wikimedia. As long as most of the users have their own wikimedia
accounts, though, having one namespace certainly makes it easier for the
users.

I don't think this is necessarily defeating OpenID. In the short term it
provides some framework to solve part of the problem of logging in to
their various sites, and in the long term it means that other wiki sites
that are not affiliated with wikimedia will be able to accept wikimedia
(really OpenID) logins. Also, of course, all other OpenID users would be
able to log in to wikimedia without creating a specific wikimedia account.