OpenId versus RSS

About  a year ago, I came up with the idea of Signup7.com, where a simple ajax script would fill out forms for you, using the information you maintain on the one website. This is how it would work:

1) You register on Signup7.com

2) you keep your info up to date

3) any website that has the Signup7 script allows you to simply enter your username and password, and your information would automatically fill out their registration form. Those websites can also get up to date information from Signup7 automatically so you don’t have to worry about outdated information on those websites.

After reading Chris Sukornyk’s post about OpenId I started thinking about the idea of using one login across multiple websites again. This idea is backwards!  With websites like twitter, you no longer need to log into multiple websites to send your information across the internet. You post it once, and let those websites do the work of coming to get your information. Twitter allows you to tell people what you are doing. People can track what you are doing from their mobile devices, computers, and probably some other obscure places because twitter makes it easy for programmers to get that information and put it practically anywhere. (Why would you want everyone to know what you are doing??  There’s a lot of reasons, but I’ll save those for a future post. ) Where does RSS come in?  It is a method of presenting content so other programs can grab it and use it. This is the technology that will allow websites like twitter to flourish in the coming years.

Among other ideas I am working on, including www.bandmaking.com to find band members, savemymoney.ca, and countless others, I think I have a new idea that might hit the top of my priority list.  I’ll tell you about it in future posts.

-Frank