The OpenID Foundation, a legal entity set up as the steward for the OpenID open source Web identification  system that seeks to make it easier for people to manage usernames and passwords for multiple online destinations through the use of a single sign-on, has announced the names of seven newly elected community board members. Representatives from Google, Yahoo, IBM, Microsoft and VeriSign have held seats on the foundation's five-member corporate board, and on Saturday the group added community board members to one and two year terms, including Google security team product manager Eric Sachs. Backed By Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM And VeriSign In October Google expanded a system allowing developers to test the OpenID system within the Mountain View, California-based company's content network, a move that Sachs said at the time would lead to "a much more streamlined, personalized and socially relevant experience for users when they log in to trusted Web sites." Members of the OpenID Foundation elected Sachs, who has been involved in various Google projects including Google Health and social networking site Orkut.com, to one of three one-year community board member spots, a position that is expected to see him continuing work he has done on improving the single sign-on system's usability features. Joining Sachs on the OpenID community board for one-year terms were current OpenID Foundation chair Scott Kveton, who has been on the board since it began two years ago, and Brian Kissel, who is the chief executive of MyOpenID.com parent company JanRain. Kveton is also the vice president of open platforms at sign-on authentication company Vidoop. Elected to a two-year term was Vidoop's Chris Messina, who is also the founder of Internet consultancy Citizen Agency. Joining Messina on the OpenID community board for a two-year term was David Recordon, open platforms technology lead for blogging application company Six Apart, who like Sachs has served on the board since its inception. Faces Challenge From Rival Facebook Connect System Receiving the most member votes were Snorri Giorgetti, the OpenID Foundation's European representative, and OpenID Foundation Japan's Nat Sakimura, who were both elected to two-year terms, according to a message announcing the results posted on the group's Web site Saturday by the foundation's election committee representative Mike Jones. Sakimura said that he hoped to further the OpenID Foundation's  work while serving as a community board member. "I believe OpenID is entering a new phase, and am really excited by the new board," Sakimura noted Sunday in a message posted on his blog. He said that the new board was "international, balanced, and committed," and added, "Together with the membership and the community, I am hoping to further advance the UCI [User-Computer Interface]." Elected with the strongest member backing of any of the seven board members was Giorgetti, who founded the OpenID Europe organization in 2007. Giorgetti said that having Sakimura on the board was likely to help move the OpenID project forward on a worldwide level. "Nat's name and mine will give a new 'European-Asian' face to the OpenID Foundation and will remind everyone that the foundation has been created to promote the interests of the worldwide community," Giorgetti wrote Sunday in a message about the group's election results posted on his personal blog. Making OpenID "a household name" was among the goals Giorgetti outlined for the new community board members, and he hoped to "continue efforts to insure the success of OpenID in the world, and build on all that former and current members of the board have accomplished," Giorgetti noted. Growing OpenID Single Sign-on System Elects Community Board The seven members of the new board were elected from a group of 17 candidates, and will take office on January 1, 2009. The five corporate board members were expected to remain in place, OpenID representative Jones said. Among the obstacles the OpenID system will face in 2009, despite the backing of search leader Google,  Microsoft and the other large technology companies on its corporate board, is the challenge posed by a rival single sign-on system for the Web being backed by Facebook, called Facebook Connect. "This new board will have to face other technologies, and the complexity of an Internet undergoing a perpetual mutation in 2009," Giorgetti wrote in the Sunday message. The OpenID 2.0 digital identity framework was created by Brad Fitzpatrick, a former founder of LiveJournal and more recently a supporter of Google's OpenSocial platform. It allows users to consolidate separate login information into one decentralized and free OpenID account which provides a single identification system for all Web sites supporting the system, which the foundation hopes will become the Web's standard. Related Links:
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