OpenID

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The OpenID logo

OpenID (Wikipedia) is an open, decentralized standard for authenticating users which can be used for access control, allowing users to log in to different services, e.g. OpenStreetMap, with the same digital identity.

OpenID is an optional, additional way to log-in to the OpenStreetMap website. When using OpenID, you will still need a normal OpenStreetMap account, but can log in with your ID rather than needing to enter your OpenStreetMap username and password.

Use existing login from popular OpenStreetMap pages

When browsing to the following URLs, you can use as login your account from popular websites:

  • www.openstreetmap.org/login
  • www.openstreetmap.org/user/new
  • www.openstreetmap.org/user/<Your Display Name>/account

Popular websites

  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Windows live (Microsoft Account)
  • Yahoo
  • WordPress
  • AOL
  • Flickr

or others

by manually entering "OpenID" URL:

Link to "OpenID provider", please replace "username" with yours first
LiveJournal http://username.livejournal.com/
Flickr http://www.flickr.com/username

Using OpenID to log into OSM

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In order to use OpenID, you will need to associate your ID with your OSM account. If you already have an OpenStreetMap account, then you can do it by logging in and going to your account details page.

Beneath the change password fields, you will see the OpenID field where you can enter your ID. If you have trouble adding an OpenID (in particular a Google account with multiple sign ins), try this: Enter "https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id" in the OpenID field of your account's details page, press "Save Changes". Then, while at Google's "third party service is requesting permission", open a new tab in the same browser and log in to OSM with your username and password; then continue the OpenID login. You can now log in to OSM without digging up your password.

For new OSM users: you can enter your OpenID on the sign-up form either in addition to a password or instead of one.

Issues with OpenID in OSM

OpenStreetMap is not only a single website, but to some degree consists of a whole conglomerate of different (external) services, e.g., editors, forum or trac. See Accounts for a list of some of these. Many of these services talk to the main OSM via username and password. If you only specify an OpenID, but no password, some of these services may not function anymore. Some services use OAuth though, which allows to communicate without needing a password and should still work with an OpenID-only login.

Obtaining an OpenID

There are many ways of obtaining an OpenID and there is a good chance that you already have one, as e.g. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! or Flickr can act as OpenID providers.