Beth Kanter one of my favorite nonprofit tech friends Twittered this article The Cute Cat Theory Talk at eTech.

It puts forward an interesting hypothesis:

Based on my Tripod experience, I’d offer the hypothesis that any sufficiently advanced read/write technology will get used for two purposes: pornography and activism. Porn is a weak test for the success of participatory media – it’s like tapping a mike and asking, “Is it on?” If you’re not getting porn in your system, it doesn’t work. Activism is a stronger test – if activists are using your tools, it’s a pretty good indication that your tools are useful and usable.

The article goes continues summarizing a half dozen or more examples of how tools on the web have been used for activist purposes. It is an amazing list and worth the read.

I guess I am wondering if OpenID has been used for activism yet? I know that I have been evangelizing the concept in the NPTech community for longer then anywhere else – beginning at NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in 2004. I am still not sure that it has sunk in or that they have figured out how to use it. Unfortunately I will not be at the NTC this year to find out.

Sorry – I am really trying to get openID to work on this hoster (well my tech person Lucy is) there is still something not working. So if you want to comment either link to this blog post and say it on your own site or send me e-mail kaliya (at) mac (dot) com. If any of you OpenID tech folks want to see if you can help her solve the problem let me know I will put you in touch.

Related posts:

1. OpenID in the NYTimes
2. OpenID Going Mainstream
3. Meet space technology improvement for etech and other ‘traditional’ conferences
4. Reality: this [OpenID] is big
5. AOL launches cool OpenID enabled App: Ficlet