Olivier Travers writes of the need for open APIs. We at Identity Commons consider open APIs to be crucial (as well as open governance, open privacy and security mechanisms, etc.). Not only are the technologies used by 2idi to implement the IC platform based upon open standards and code (LAMP, XRI, XDI and SAML/Lasso), but all 2idi core software will be dual (BSD/GPL) licensed. In addition, we will be explicitly working with service providers of all types to create more and better open APIs so that they can more easily use the open authentication model. It may sound counterintuitive, but not only do we want to have as many people and applications connecting to us as possible, but we also want to encourage a multitude of providers offering services compatible with ours - all part of our open source plan for success.
As there will be other identity models in existence for a while (after all, we’re coming in rather late to the game) we will work to create interoperability where possible. Of course, since 2idi/Identity Commons is the only initiative that I know of that is aimed at a fully open system giving its users total control over their identity - including where their information is stored - some of the other identity providers that we interface with may have less than the desired level of compatibility.