Windows Live will soon be supporting the Open-ID authentication standard. that's great news, as soon I can access Windows Live and WMUG using a single ID!

I can associate a site with my Open-ID, login to my chosen Open-ID provider (lots to choose from out there!), and as long as I remain logged in to the provider I can hop between sites i've associated with the ID without being prompted for another login. Bring it on myITforum, that would then make three sites I trust that I can hop between with only one login.

Eggs in one basket? No, I setup what I call my insecure Open-ID, that I use on unimportant sites, sites I don't trust et al, and have my secure Open-ID that provides me with access to sites I do trust. I literally drown under the amount of logins I need to remember, from email, website, to server logins. It's just getting too much for me to handle nowdays, so Open-ID is a bit of relief (where I can use it) considering that the Microsoft Passport initiative kind of died on it's feet a while ago and seemed to be the only other way to do this.

By the way, WMUG enabled Open-ID a few weeks back. We didn't make a song and dance about it as not that many folk use it. However if you go to the Login page you will see that you can indeed use your Open-ID to access this site.

Read the complete post at http://wmug.co.uk/blogs/r0b/archive/2008/10/29/windows-live-now-supporting-open-id.aspx