A while ago I had an idea for an extension to the OpenID standard. Please see that site if you're unfamiliar with OpenID.

OpenID basically functions by providing a single trust metric. Let's assume there are two websites, myblog.net and somenewssite.com. Assuming both sites support OpenID, I could log in to somenewssite.com using ian.myblog.net. somenewssite would then redirect me to myblog.net, where I could log in with my myblog username and password, and then give permission to somenewssite to log me in.

So I get logged into somenewssite, but using my username and password from myblog. But that username and password never leave myblog's servers. All that somenewssite gets is a simple message saying "yes, this user is who they claim."

I propose a similar setup based on OpenID for the purpose of roleplaying across multiple chats, tentatively called PlayID.

PlayID assumes you have an account with one or more characters hosted at a particular chat site. For this example, I'll use Wanton Wicked. For the purposes of roleplaying, you want to take your vampire character from WanWic's City (a Detroit analogue) to Providence, RI as featured on Dark Providence. Perhaps he's looking for a specific ancient manuscript, perhaps looking for information obtained there, or any of a number of RP reasons.

You can log into Dark Providence with your WanWic PlayID. This will redirect you to WanWic's servers, where you'll log in using your WanWic credentials. After authorizing WanWic to pass your information to Dark Providence, you'll select the character you want to use, and then be forwarded back to Dark Providence's servers where your character will appear in their chat.

Now, both chats in this example are Digichat environments, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the case. PlayID is flexible enough that it can theoretically be used with any chat environment.

Information that is sent would likely be limited to: verification/authorization (you are who you say you are), character name, character description, and a URL for your character profile. No sensitive information would be transferred.