I can vouch for the fact that Aswath has been floating this idea for quite a while. He's a voice in the wilderness which is usually right.

It's slowly dawning on me that OpenID is extremely disruptive, as it lets the user point to a directory service of arbitrary complexity, which can aggregate multiple relationships, and only the user is in control. "Circles of trust" is all about bizdev. The funny thing is, telcos could be OpenID providers, and it could end up proving extremely popular and profitable - if then can figure it out. They could insinuate themselves into all kinds of 3rd party applications -- but because the users want them involved, not because of their market power in access.

Martin, I am glad you have changed your mind about the nature of OpenID and that it is the user who has to decide to give business and presence in the access business does not assure success. We sure could use your articulation on this topic.

I still need to work on convincing you that there is no money in it. :-) Only then OpenID is truly disruptive.