=Andy.Dale of ooTao has posted a firefox extension that we think is well worth a look.
Named “ph-off” and pronounced “eff-off”, Andy’s extension modifies firefox so that your browser looks different when you are on your i-broker’s login page. The idea is to make it really easy to visually tell when you are on your real i-brokers page.
Get the full scoop at the ph-off site and Andy’s original post.
William Tan (=wil) has created a simple nifty extension for Firefox that let’s you type XRIs right into the address bar.
“What’s that?”, you say.
The FoXRI extension lets you forget the “http://xri.net” and simply enter an i-name right into the Firefox address bar. You can check out =wil’s explanation of this on his site.
Astute observers will also note that =wil has done something a little different with his i-name; =wil doesn’t redirect to =wil’s contact page, rather it redirects to the web page with the FoXRI extension. Wil has set a different default page for =wil than his contact page. The capability to have your i-name redirect to other web pages is known as Link Forwarding and it’s a new service that most i-brokers will be providing as of September 11, 2006.
For instance, we’ve set set the following XRI to go to our blog:
Try it out…
A special price of $5 for personal i-names is being offered by participating i-brokers during the DigitalIDWorld Conference; the price is available to anyone who can access participating i-broker web sites (you don’t have to attend the conference).
Special pricing will be available from 10pm GMT September 10th (3pm PST) through 2am GMT September 14 (7pm PST, September 13).
We’re not completely certain if all i-brokers are participating in the promotion but recommend you check them all out anyway. See the list at inames.net.
EZiBroker has a page describing the promotion at iwantmynamenow.com.
The iname global launch has been moved out 1 more week and will now take place on June 20th, 2006 at 4pm PST.
The new launch date coincides with the Identity Mashup Conference taking place in Boston at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and key inames participants will be there to launch it live.
We received an email today from a new i-broker that will commence operations with the global launch on Tuesday, June 20th.
According to the email (below), 1id will offer (at launch) additional services beyond the requirements of XDI.ORG and what other ibrokers seem to be offerring. Their web site has a list of these services. As an iname user I’m very happy to see competition and service innovation starting to take place and I’m looking forward to learning more about 1id’s services.
Like EZIBroker, 1id is offering a pre-order service which should open today. 1id’s pre-order service works a little different from EZIBroker’s version:
Enough of the summary. Here’s the original text of the 1id announcement.
1id.com is a small, but diverse, creative, forward-thinking, and customer-focused new ibroker. Its Principals have always been very interested in privacy, security, and identity as it relates to the Internet and web services. Despite its late introduction to inames, 1id.com has quickly realized the capabilities of the XRI technology and platform and the potential opportunities for providing related services. 1id.com has built its own ibroker systems for iname registration as well as its own iservices and will be the first full-service service global ibroker at launch. Some of the extra-value features that 1id.com will offer include additional security for iSSO, additional methods (Jabber, AIM, ICQ, MSN, YahooIM, ICQ) for iContact, and additional features (click metrics) for iForwarding.Also, beginning on Tuesday, June 13th, 1id.com will launch its pre-registration system to enable interested registrants and companies
to pre-register those inames that are critically important to them. Pre-registration will be available at http://1id.com/1id.com will not turn away any pre-registrations - if a name is already pre-registered, customers interested in pre-registering that name can jump ahead of the queue by agreeing to pay a slightly higher price for the that name.
1id.com invites consumers and businesses to pre-register both personal and business names at its pre-registration site and to visit its primary site (which is still being finalized) to learn about its
services.We look forward to serving you, the global community, as your full service ibroker.
Check out 1id and let =inamers know what you think!
EZIBroker.net just announced a reservation service that will let you request an iname prior to the upcoming global launch. The service will open for taking names at 12 noon PST, Monday, May 22nd.
You can read the full text of their announcement below, but for anyone who has been waiting on an XNS reserved name or has an organizational name in mind, this seems like a good approach.
At this time, EZIBroker is the only ibroker we know to be offering this service, meaning that getting a name on their list provides some good odds of getting the name you want; (plus you only get charged if they succeed). The odds could change if other ibrokers offer a similar service.
If anyone knows of another service like this, please let us know and we’ll post info here.
Update: We just heard from another i-broker that plans to operate a similar service. We hope to provide more details including a link as soon as possible.
=== EZIBroker Announcement ===LET YOUR FRIENDS KNOW:
EZIBRoker to offer I-Name Reserve service.
EZIBroker will be one of the first Global I-Brokers selling i-names through it’s various retailers. As a Global I-Broker, EZIBroker is able to directly register names in the global registry through Neustar’s programmatic API.
Starting Monday, May 22nd at 12 noon PST we will open a service that
let’s folks request a name to be registered at the global launch.
This is a good way to obtain names that have been reserved or otherwise unavailable before the global launch.Here’s a quick summary of how it works:
1] Starting 5/22 and continuing until a few days before the registry opens, you can add names you want to the list.
2] Names added to the list must be unique - if you attempt to add a name already on the list it won’t be accepted.
3] When the global registry opens for business, EZIBroker will attempt registration of all names on the list as fast as it can in the order they were added to the list.
4] If a name you “reserved” is successfully registered, you will pay the normal cost of registration plus a $10 premium for the “reserve”
service. You pay nothing if the attempt is unsuccessful.The I-Name Reserve web form will be available Monday at:
http://www.EZIBroker.net/reserve.nsfFor those that want more details, read on…
In order to give everyone an equal opportunity to get their names on the list we will open the list at noon (PST) on Monday May 22nd. The list will work on a first come first served basis. Once someone has put =andy on the list no-one else will be able to. The list will be processed in the order it was received. We make no guarantees about our ability to get the i-names that you want, if you don’t get the i-name, you pay nothing.
We are going to charge $10 over the basic retail price for each name on the list that we successfully procure for you. If we don’t get any names for you, you pay nothing.
When you sign up on the list, you won’t initially have to pay anything. However, shortly after the list opens we will send you a confirmation and payment details; a deposit to guarantee payment in the event your registration will likely be required. Payment details will be sent to you if you put your names on the list. If you don’t like the terms, you pay nothing and we take your names off the list. We need to do this to ensure that all requests are serious.
If you have questions please email: reserve@ezibroker.net
Yours,
EZIBroker Team
Hot off the press: 50-year iname prices will increase May 8.
Get your inames and gift codes for $25 while you can. (A gift code at $25 will be the least expensive way to register an unclaimed XNS name when they become available after the global launch.)
We got the following questions and thought the answer was worth blogging
I had to verify my email address to send mail to the author of a blog I subscribe to. So I am ready to consider getting an i-name, but why would I choose an i-name over any of the other identity services out there? What is the chance that i-name will become the accepted standard? Can I consider i-name a replacement for email certificates? If not, what is the difference?
These are great questions. Following we do our best to answer without resorting to technical mumbo jumbo.
First, it will be helpful to clarify what an i-name is; it’s simply an identifier - a string of characters that you register - and the mumbo jumbo that let’s the name be used with all kinds of services.
When you register an i-name at 2idi today, you get two services:
1] Authentication service - authentication lets you prove you are the owner of the iname by entering your password. Once authenticated you can simply present your iname to other iname enabled service providers and they can verify that you are already logged in by asking your authentication service. Note that they don’t need your password to do this.
2] Contact service - a web page that let’s people send you messages provided they authenticate themselves. As you experienced, you were able to authenticate by verifying your email address.
Both of these services are provided by 2idi today and are integrated into the 2idi ibroker code itself. However, at the upcoming global launch these services can just as easily be provided by other service providers. Your ibroker (where you register and manage your iname) will always offer some essential services (such as authentication), but they will also let you provision whatever other services you want. This is a key value of the iname/ibroker. You can use this ability to augment or replace services your ibroker offers with ones you prefer; for instance a better authentication service than your ibroker provides. The services you can manage under your iname are extensible and distinct from the iname itself. Your iname is simply your identifier (and the mumbo jumbo).
So, back to the questions. You’re wondering about the value of the iname identifier, the services that go with it, and the chances that it becomes *the* accepted standard.
Thanks to Kim Cameron, the conversation in the internet identity space is now framed in the generally accepted concept of an identity metasystem - an interoperable mix of different identity standards and protocols. Fundamental to the metasystem concept is the notion that any true identity solution needs to consist of interoperable approaches so that we don’t get trapped in identity “silos”.
What’s important at this juncture is not whether any particular standard is going to *win* and be *the* standard, but whether it is going to be interoperable with the others. Inames were developed with interoperability in mind, they don’t replace anything, they are compatible with *all* other identifiers (they are sometimes referred to as a meta-identifier), and they create new capabilities. The proof of inames’ value still has to be demonstrated, but their ability to be interoperable is clear:
Inames are a part of the Yadis project, an open source, open protocol initiative to create interoperability between simple authentication services including LID and OpenID. Inames are interoperable with Liberty and Microsoft’s infocards. And at launch, inames will have SAML based authentication as well.
So, inames won’t be *the* standard, but they are *a* standard that will work with the others. How valuable they become still needs to be proven in the marketplace where inames need to demonstrate their unique value within the identity metasystem.
Lastly, the iname is not a replacement for email certificates, but it’s possible for your iname to point to all kinds of certificates that you might want to use; certificates can be “just another service”.
As to whether you should purchase an iname, that is up to you. The specially priced 50-year inames at 2idi were priced to make the gamble worthwhile. But you don’t have to buy an iname to use the iname services - you can also get a free iname at one of the community sites.
We just noticed that the nifty new inames site inames.net is now online. Check it out!
Most folks know you can register inames at 2idi. But few seem to be aware that you can also purchase iname gift codes.
Gift codes are a simple “token” you can use to register an i-name. The idea for gift codes was (as the name implies) to enable gift-giving, but they also can be used in a couple other ways.
If you’re going to purchase more than one iname, you can use your credit card once to buy gift codes. Then, whenever you feel like it, you can redeem the gift codes one at a time to register an iname without having to use your card again.
The ability to purchase a gift code today and use it later can be used to “lock-in” the special 50-year price today and then redeem it for an iname after the launch. For anybody interested in XNS reserved names this provides a means to get an iname that won’t be available until the after the launch but do it at today’s prices.
As an example of how the gift codes work, here’s a real, live gift code for the first person who reads this blog and redeems it for an iname: B6Bi39W (just paste it into the form at 2idi)
(Note that gift code sales will end on 5/31 as the transition to global launch begins)