"Distributed"

[Martin Atkins]

I was just showing off OpenID to a friend of mine, and he made a very
good point. In lots of places we've been calling OpenID a “distributed”
identity system, but really it isn't. Only one entity takes part in each
of the roles for a given transaction. I think a more appropriate term is
“decentralised”: there is no central authority for anything, and users
are free to choose whatever ID server they want.

A minor nitpick, perhaps, but it could cause some confusion for those
who misinterpret what we mean by “distributed”. I suggest changing it to
“decentralised” (or with a Z, if you prefer) everywhere.

I think the first section on the front page should also mention that
your OpenID identity isn't necessarily coupled to a particular ID
server, so you can switch between them at will without changing your
identity URL (as long as you have an identity which allows that;
LiveJournal's currently don't). That's the first question I'm always
asked when people read the first sentence of that page.