The YADIS specification (download PDF) has made great progress and is now in a quite stable state, thanks to our relentless editor, Joaquin Miller. Thanks also to David Recordon and Josh Hoyt, who helped drive the effort, and the many people who commented either on the YADIS mailing list or one-on-one.

With this release of the YADIS spec, sites can confidently begin to implement URL-based identity by letting their customers bring their own identity, instead of having to force them to sign up for yet another account. This has major advantages both for customer convenience and security. Sites can also offer social networking features that now can be implemented much more easily because you can relate your users to other information on the web (e.g. their blog), at least for those users who want you to.

This version 0.9 of the YADIS spec is intended towards implementors: The plans it to take one more month to give implementors the opportunity to comment before we officially move to version 1.0. Then we can declare victory ;-)

If you implement, or consider implement all or parts of YADIS, please drop me a note, I’d appreciate it. That way, implementors can stay in touch, do interoperability testing, and I’d also like to include you in certain marketing and promotional opportunities if you are interested.

PS: NetMesh InfoGrid is expected to support YADIS bidirectionally within the month. Check the NetMesh Developer’s Website for updates.