One of the main design decisions I made for the new system I'm working on is that I wanted to use domain names and DNS as the primary address handle, or default online identity.  I've gotten quite a bit of feedback saying that I need to look at XRI and i-Names.

I took a look at these a while back and didn't really care for them, but based on the volume of responses I got recommending that I look at them I decided to give it the ol' college try today and at least sign up for it myself, so I went to http://www.gbtn.biz/inames/index.jsp and went to town. 

Here's what I learned.

• XRI requires brokers registrars, which form the root of the address you give out.  For example, my i-Name is http://xri.net/=jason.kolb.  That URL is forever tied to xri.net.
• There is no way to redirect that URL to www.jasonkolb.com, or display what I want there.  To my knowledge I cannot stop it from pointing to http://contact.gbtn.biz/icontact/Contact?xri=%3Djason.kolb
• It appears that the broker attempts to be the security layer between you and the rest of the Internet. 
• Putting up any meaningful content still requires that you redirect users to a URL.  This means that your content is still hosted by a service provider
• It doesn't appear that I can route email thru this identity.  Therefore I still need a service provider for email.  And probably instant messaging as well, this is certainly not a valid Jabber ID.
• There is no native XRI support at the moment, so it's all done using HTTP.
• I finally was able to set up a link to my blog, here's the address: http://xri.net/=jason.kolb/(+blog).  Some thoughts about this address:
  • It's ugly.  I like jasonkolb.com much better, and they both end up at the same place.  The only difference is that all of the rest of the addresses on the site are consistent with my domain name and not my i-Name.
  • It will break every URL-input validation code I've ever seen.
  • It is still intimately tied to xri.org.  Xri.net is still a domain name reliant on DNS.  The only difference is that I have complete control over jasonkolb.com, I do not have complete control over Xri.net.
  • I have so little control that I couldn't even make the default page for my address my blog, which is what I wanted.  What if I don't want the default representation of my identity to be a contact page?  (I really don't!)
  • The general public will understand this address even less than a URL.  If I printed this on my business card it would look like I'm into algebra, not identity.  I will be completely honest, the first time I saw an XRI I thought I was looking at pseudo-code.

To be frank, this seems like an unnecessary layer of abstraction.  I also confess to finding the signup process confusing.  Look at configuration screen and tell me the average MySpace user will have a clue what to do:

It seems to me that this will require a massive amount of re-education on the part of the general public.  Hell, I'm not sure if I even completely understand the intricacies of the broker concept yet.  It seems like my i-Name is usable on any of them, but if all the links on the *Web* point to a specific broker I'm just not sure how that keeps me from being tied to the broker.

Something about identity providers just doesn't sit right with me.  And although I realize that domain registrars are basically needed to make DNS work at all, and they are providers, introducing another layer of identity provider on top of that just doesn't seem like the right solution to me.

Now, this post is certainly not a slam on XRI, i-Name, the people who wrote, or the people using it (of which I am now a member).  I could be all wet on this, feel free to correct me if I missed something.  But if that's the case then please also re-write the documentation and mabye the Wikipedia article because this is where it got me.

On the plus side, I now have an i-Name to add to my fragmented online identity :)