Openbadges and Persona

[Fabio Barone]

Hi

I am new to Openbadges, and starting to read the docs.

I have a specific project in mind which will require institutional funding I believe, so not sure it will ever come to life.
But in order to write a project proposal, I would like to get more info about the following questions:

• I have heard rumors about Mozilla Persona being dropped at some point. How much truth is there in this?
• If it would be dropped, how would it affect Openbadges?
• Is Openbadges tightly coupled with Persona?
• Could some other authentication mechanism be used for Openbadges? If yes, it is already possible or would it need further coding?

Thanks for the community for letting me know about these questions - and also for producing Openbadges, which I believe is a brilliant idea, which I hope will achieve even more momentum and find broad adoption.

[robin....@perkins.org]

Hi Fabio, there has been some update in this area:

What is sunsetting is the Persona authentication that allows Backpack holders to associate multiple email addresses to a Backpack for validating their badges (since email addresses are also the validation data for adding a badge to a backpack).

 

DigitalMe of UK is taking on the development of a replacement credential for Mozilla’s Persona sign-in, and expects to have an announcement by November, following Mozfest 2016. At that time, we will have a better understanding of the users’ experience with the Backpack and can help them prepare for any changes that might be required.

If you are interested in the community call from this summer, you can listen to the recording

Open Badges Community Call 

https://archive.org/details/OpenBadgesCommunityCall20161307

or review the etherpad notes

http://etherpad.badgealliance.org/CC2016July13

Looks like we are in a wait-and-see for the next few weeks.

Robin Sitten

[Nate Otto]

Thanks, Robin, for reposting this. The badges community is looking forward to continued development on backpack(s), including the Mozilla Backpack. There's an opportunity to get deeply involved in this effort if you're able to travel next month: If you are able to make it to London for MozFest October 28-30, there will be a number of collaborative sessions on Backpacks, establishing the general roadmap for the future, including for the Mozilla Open Badges Backpack. https://mozillafestival.org/

Nate Otto

Director of Technology, Badge Alliance

badgealliance.org