Travis Vocino Experiments in Art, Science & Technology.

I’m a big fan of OpenID. I’m also a big fan of neat packages where everything is branded beautifully clean-like. (Did that make sense?)

I dig custom Basecamp URLs, for example. In the same way, I also dig branding my OpenID url. This means instead of using the default MyOpenID url vocino.myopenid.com I use my ultra stylish vocino.com for identification.

Here is the mind-numbingly easy way to make that happen.

What is OpenID?

OpenID is a decentralized single sign-on system. Using OpenID-enabled sites, web users do not need to remember traditional authentication tokens such as username and password. Instead, they only need to be previously registered on a website with an OpenID “identity provider” (IdP).

Since OpenID is decentralized, any website can employ OpenID software as a way for users to sign in; OpenID solves the problem without relying on any centralized website to confirm digital identity.

If you’re an OpenID virgin, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon. Honestly, the wagon is off and running already. One real-world reason for using OpenID right now is the ability to easily link your Basecamp and Highrise accounts.

Setting up your OpenID account.

Obviously, the first thing you’ll need is an OpenID account with one of the many providers.

There’s a few good ones to choose from but I went with MyOpenID. Originally I chose it because the URL it came with wasn’t as hideous as some of the others. This was before I realized I could use my URL and I figured it is, after all, my OpenID. Right?

So go ahead and set up an account — taking note of what the URL is (yourusername.myopenid.com).

Add the link tags to your site’s head.

Now that we have our shiny new OpenID URL, we want to set up our own site for delegation.

You only need two things to set up delegation:

• The identifier issued to you by your provider.
• The URL of your provider’s identity server.

In our case, the identity server URL is http://www.myopenid.com/server.

Therefore, if you view my source I have the following:

<link rel="openid.server" href="http://www.myopenid.com/server" />
<link rel="openid.delegate" href="http://vocino.myopenid.com/" />

Obviously, replace my username with yours in line 2. That’s it.

That’s It

I just said that. Now when you’re faced with an OpenID login, simply jam your personal URL in there and you’ll soon be greeted by the MyOpenID form for you to “Allow Forever” or “Allow Once” as far as authorization goes.

Vocino Pro-Tip

The URL/Site field for leaving comments here at Vocino.com supports OpenID! Yeah, I know, fucking bad ass. Once you have everything set up, go ahead and pop your URL in there.

Good open luck!