Lots of companies are addressing the identity problem – the “problem” ranges from the need for a single sign in across applications to spam reduction. Email has long been the only real choice, but the spam/noise to signal ratio is, of course, out of control. And the problem with the companies currently offering alternative solutions is that the data is essentially centralized. Users and applications shy away from this, and so nothing has really gotten a foothold.

Dave Winer posted a document yesterday that may have the seed of a solution. He’s asked for a discussion to begin and it has (see the comments and trackbacks).

If the right partners jump in, this could fix a lot that is broken with the web today.