OpenID will become a brand-inside-a-brand – Dovetailing BL Ochman’s #8 online marketing prediction on Privacy, I believe user-centric identity federation will steal the limelight in ’08. And customer-centric companies will continue taking the lead in offering OpenID – a feature with instant, yet lasting, benefits.
A key driver – on top of the Web’s natural growth – for user-centric identity will be the ‘softening economy,’ particularly as it relates to education. With fewer donations and less funding (and many more people going back to and/or staying in school to wait out the job market), the education world will be quicker to embrace OpenID in ’08.
I think it will start to seriously percolate in Higher Ed by the end of Q3, picking up solid steam by year’s end. Once the education case studies are established, the business world adopt at a quicker pace, too. Fortune companies will grudgingly accept it as a work-around, mostly out of frustration with the current governances and legal issues relating to enterprise-wide federated identity.
Once again, the Web proves to be a force to be reckoned with, turning identity management inside out by putting the focus of identity and privacy issues outside in.
SPECIAL NOTE: On behalf of all customers, congratulations and thanks to all the developers and supporters of OpenID.