Jyte.com is a remarkably simple, yet interesting new site (just opened up this week!) that leverages the concept of an online identity, credibility via a web of trust-type mechanism, and claims that can be agreed or disagreed, and discussion about aforesaid claims - all tied up with OpenID identity/authentication.

Jyte is just one example of how disaggregation of authentification and identity from the actual tools can be useful. OpenID (and Jyte, for that matter) are based on open protocols and interfaces that can be worked into existing or new tools. Jyte claims can be embedded in blogs or web pages or course activities. Jyet “cred” is available for other systems to use and/or display. Jyte group membership might be used by other applications like discussion groups or online courses to customize content or control access. Private or members-only claims and group moderator membership management tools are coming, so an educator could use groups to organize students into teams for a group project that uses Zoomr.com (another OpenID-enabled tool) photo sharing and hooks into a LiveJournal blog (another OpenID-enabled tool) … or … sheesh, I don’t know. There are so many possibilities that more creative people than I can dream up - and Jyte is only one example of an OpenID-enabled application. OpenID is a new and rapidly-growing protocol that is seeing explosive growth in fascinating and novel new online applications.

Plus, it’s fun. I don’t quite know why, but I’m finding Jyte strangely addictive. And quite funny on occasion:

Descartes would have a field day with that one! And, no, I have no idea who Oscar J Carlton IV is … never met ‘em!