If you've ever had trouble remembering your username and/or password while attempting to accomplish something on the web, OpenID and Appalachian may be of assistance.
Features
Appalachian is a Firefox add-on that adds the ability to manage and use several OpenIDs to ease the burdens of login during your browsing experience. The OpenID identity framework reduces the username and password combinations you need to remember by replacing the mechanism with one based on URIs (uniform resource identifiers, such as the address for a website). Sites do need to be OpenID-enabled for you to gain its benefits.
Appalachian assists users by storing which of their OpenIDs have been used on which sites. It is inadvisable to use one OpenID for all identification purposes, especially if you want to keep your activities in one regard separate from another, or if you desire anonymity. While it is possible to use OpenID as a single sign-on solution, it is also possible that web application providers would share their login data to paint a portrait of your browsing habits based on sessions matching your single OpenID. Appalachian helps you fragment your sessions. As a side benefit, Appalachian also keeps you from repeatedly typing your OpenID.
To shield you from a well-recognized weakness in the OpenID login protocol, Appalachian will also help you combat phishing attacks by explicitly verifying that the login protocol is proceeding as it should or noticeably warning you when it appears the login protocol is deviating from expectations.
Our Interest
SIMILE's interest in the OpenID space is to provide a URI-based identification mechanism for users of our Semantic Bank software. Appalachian provides an interface for our Firefox add-on Piggy Bank to utilize when publishing to banks. Together, these allow us to defer authentication in Semantic Bank and account management in Piggy Bank to other pieces of software while simultaneously achieving our goals concerning identification.
Next
Want to try it out? Read the installation guide.
