We’ve seen great momentum lately towards universal support of unique identifiers for single sign-on and information sharing. Microsoft and AOL have both recently decided to support OpenID. This is great news for AKA (since we’re already in the “unique identifier” space), and as of Aug 1, we support OpenID.
The good news for you is that you can now use your AKA openID to share your contact information via AlwaysKnownAs.com.
Here’s how it works:
- Members will be able to register for an openID from AKA. All existing AKA mambers automatically get an AKA openID - in the format openID.AlwaysKnownAs.com/YourAKA
- Your openID will work as your AKA - keeping your information current in your friends’ address books, if they use the AKA plug-in for Outlook, BlackBerry or Mac OSX.
- When you use your AKA openID to login to another site, you’ll be provided with a spiffy interface that allows you to easily customize your personal information for that particular site.
- Your openID URL from AKA will link directly to your public contact information, where users will be able to request more information from you or send you an e-mail.
- Eventually we’ll also support “foreign” openIDs as well, so you’ll be able to link your contact information to any identifier (no matter where it was issued), whether it be an openID, iname or an AKA alias.
Posted by: Greg Sharp
August 1st, 2007
We’re getting a ton of suggestions for new AKA features. Before you think we’re dumb and just overlooked a bunch of cool stuff, here’s a brief list of features we’ll be adding in the months following our beta-launch:
- Ability to attach a v-card when sending information to a guest (someone who’s not an AKA member yet)
- Support for aliases…an easy way to change your AKA without losing your original info
- Control your card visibilities and permissions from within your Outlook, Blackberry or Palm address book
- Export AKA contacts en masse to populate a new address book
But don’t stop commenting, as we’re always looking for suggestions.
Posted by: Terry Anderson
March 27th, 2006
OK. If we haven’t been clear enough about our address book software plug-ins, now’s the time.
If you’re like me, you never enter all of the info for your contacts. If someone gets into my address book, I’m lucky if I’ve entered their name and e-mail address. If they’ve been in my address book for more than a year, then their e-mail has probably changed. So now the only correct information I have on file for them is their name. Not so good. Some people are diligent organizers. I wish I was that-kind-of-person. But, I’m not.
So here’s what AKA Connect offers the lazy person:
- You enter a contact’s AKA and all the rest of their info gets entered for you
- If they change their info, your address book gets updated automagically
- If you change your info, all your contacts will be updated immediately
We currently have versions for Outlook and Blackberry. We’re almost done with the Palm version. And we’re doing one for Mac Address Book. Eventually we’ll support every major address book. And if we can convince them, the big web-mail providers can integrate with AKA via API.
So go ahead and get lazy.
Posted by: Terry Anderson
March 27th, 2006
