Bud.tv and Identity 2.0

Bud.tv launched this Monday only to get hit with immediate feedback as to the egregious registration requirements. While there have been other comments as to why Bud.tv is or isn't the next great thing in advertising, the registration issue cuts deep into an ongoing discussion about the web and Identity 2.0.

For a entertaining overview of Identity 2.0 issues, watch Dick Hardt's, CEO of Sxip Identity, 2005 OSCON keynote address.  I know its old but its still a great starting point.

Sxip's is working with the OpenID group which is a "a free framework for user-centric digital identity; and Whobar for web developers, which streamlines the user registration and login process with Identity 2.0 technologies, such as InfoCard, i-Names, and OpenID."

OpenID and projects like it seek to provide a "user-centric identity where by each website trusts the user, and the user is free to choose any identity agent that provides the appropriate technical functionality. Thus the user is in the middle of a data transaction. This does not mean the user has to approve every tr ansaction, but that the data always flows through the user's identity agent."

Identity management and verification could have prevented Bud.tv from having to invent its own authentication process and allowed them instead to focus on its real goal of providing original content to its target audience.  That's going to be hard enough.