LID-FAQ-OtherSystems
From lid.netmesh.org
Comparison of Identity Vocabularies
Available at Identity Vocabularies Comparison. Looks at Liberty Alliance, LDAP, Microsoft CardSpace (aka InfoCard), Sxip, SREG and LID.
How is LID different from OpenID?
Since Q1 of 2006, LID supports OpenID as one of its features. LID is a far broader system that supports many more kinds of services than OpenID does so far. Going forward, it can be expected that OpenID will start supporting some additional LID features, and LID will support additional OpenID features.
How is LID different from Yadis?
The original LID discovery mechanism has been superseded by the Yadis discovery mechanism, which is somewhat more powerful and more compatible with other projects. LID supports Yadis discovery as one of its features.
See also Yadis.
How is LID different from Microsoft InfoCard?
InfoCard, scheduled to be released with Windows Vista in early 2007, is an "identity selector" that enables Windows users to use a "card" metaphor to authenticate at websites. It is built on the WS-* stack of protocols.
LID is both a much broader system, and also much simpler. For example, LID is very REST-ful, and supports features such as information updates by pull, relationships through URLs, sessions, authenticated messaging etc. InfoCard will look prettier when released, but requires users to either upgrade to Windows Vista or download a lot of code, while LID runs entirely in the browser.
There have been some discussions, and it is conceivable that the InfoCard user experience may become one possible front end to the LID protocols at some point in the future.
NetMesh has been playing a leading role in putting an industry alliance together to build an open-source version of InfoCard (called OSIS.
How is LID different from Sxip?
The answer to this question depends entirely on the version of Sxip that LID is compared with, as Sxip's architecture has shifted substantially several times.
Currently, Sxip is focused on the DIX protocol, submitted (but, so far, not accepted) to the IETF. This protocol is roughly comparable in functionality to OpenID's "dumb mode" (see below, one of many features supported by LID) with the addition of being able to carry name-value statements during authentication. LID is more efficient, multi-protocol, and an open environment that is pluggable, with a number of additional features such as sessions and authenticated messaging.
If the DIX and/or Sxip protocols gained substantial traction in the marketplace in the future, it is conceivable that LID may support those protocols as additional LID Services.
How is LID different from Liberty Alliance?
Liberty Alliance was started to allow on-line merchants to form "circles of trust" within which a consumer would not have to re-authenticate. For example, it would allow a user of an airline website to also order a rental car without having to log on to a second site.
LID, on the other hand, focuses on giving individuals a digital identity on the internet that they can control themselves, which is a fundamentally different (and largely complemetary) focus.
For an expanded, and slightly different view by Nickr, go to this page.
How is LID different from Identity Commons?
Identity Commons is repositioning itself as a technology-neutral advocacy organization.
Instead of this question, you may want to consider the question "How is LID different from i-names/XRI?"
How is LID different from i-names or XRI?
XRI/i-names has the goal to create an identifier system that is more abstract that today's URLs. Similarly to other systems, it builds a separate name space for identifiers. These identifiers have the form =JohnDoe (with a prefix that indicates the type of entity, such as "person").
LID, on the other hand, works under the assumption that average users are much more comfortable with URLs than with URNs or other new types of handles, in particular if they can type a LID URL into any browser and immediately obtain useful information about that person.
Through Yadis, LID and i-names/XRI are using the same discovery mechanism. It appears possible to use XRIs/i-names in place of URLs within LID in the future; whether LID will support this is an issue that will be decided in the future.
How is LID different from Microsoft Passport?
Microsoft Passport is a closed system, entirely controlled by Microsoft and closely tied into various other Microsoft products. Individuals and companies have proven to be reluctant adopters of a system so tightly controlled by one dominant company.
In recent years, Microsoft has repositioned Passport only as the login system for Microsoft websites. See also the paragraph on InfoCard below, which is Microsoft's new identity product.
Other
The following links were submitted to this wiki.
