In her version here, it has moved into a Venn diagram.

Drummond writes about recent progress at the Identity Commons, and how it is…

…perhaps the most intentionally-designed un-organization in history.

Would you like to be involved?

More seriously, he has a very valid point. The traditional model for organizations interested in some area of the market or some technology has been to build some kind of cartel of vendors or at least of the powers in charge. Only recently have new models emerged that work differently, the most visible of which right now is the Un-conference: a conference where the attendees determine what happens, not the organizers and not the speakers. In fact, there are no speakers, or perhaps more appropriately, everybody is a speaker. As anybody who has been to Internet Identity Workshops can attest, it is a tremendously successful model.

So welcome to the un-organization. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, this un-organization deserves your support. Welcome to the Identity Commons!

Doc Searls finally wrote down what I and others have implored him to write down for some time: his story about meeting that Nigerian Pastor on a plane, which led to "Markets are conversations" in the Cluetrain manifesto and a host of profound insights. Listen to this dialogue:

“Pretend this is a garment”, Sayo said, picking up one of those blue airplane pillows. “Let’s say you see it for sale in a public market in my country, and you are interested in buying it. What is your first question to the seller?”

“What does it cost?” I said.

“Yes”, he answered. “You would ask that. Let’s say he says, ‘Fifty dollars’. What happens next?”

“If I want the garment, I bargain with him until we reach an agreeable price.”

“Good. Now let’s say you know something about textiles. And the two of you get into a long conversation where both of you learn much from each other. You learn about the origin of the garment, the yarn used, the dyes, the name of the artist, and so on. He learns about how fabric is made in your country, how distribution works, and so on. In the course of this you get to know each other. What happens to the price?”

“Maybe I want to pay him more and he wants to charge me less”.

“Yes. And why is that?”

“I’m not sure.”

“You now have a relationship”.

I’ve heard him tell the story several times in different settings. But I’m still trying to wrap my mind about the implications… they seem to be everywhere.

Another large adopter. Curiously, they only host identities, but do not accept third-party-hosted identities. I wonder why. (I can think of many reasons, but I wonder which ones apply here.)

Here is the Wordpress OpenID FAQ.