Jonesieblog

I have read more thought-provoking posts on students 2.0 (a collaborative blog produced by students) since it launched than on any other blog in my reader.  I thoroughly recommend it for that reason and for that reason alone.

If I were one of the contributors to the new students 2.0 collaborative blog, however, I think I’d be getting rather sick of the patronising tone of many of the comments – stuff like “I’m really impressed by the quality of your writing.”  No one would say that to me (not even if they were impressed, which would be rather unlikely) so why say it to these confident young bloggers? Hopefully the virtual patting-on-the-head will end soon, and folk will stick to commenting on the substantive issues which are being raised so eloquently.

Or maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe the youngsters involved were worried about how they would be received, and are most grateful for the words of support.   What do I know?!

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The title says it all.  I’ve registered on http://www.freeyourid.com for the free 90 day trial.  I was amazed that robert.jones.name was still available.

The .name tld is supposed to be used to provide a clear, unique URL for one’s identity.  This can then be used as an OpenID… if you’ve been reading my previous posts then I’m sure you get the picture.

I’m wondering whether or not it’s worth paying for this URL.  I can’t really see why it’s any better than using, say, robertmjones.co.uk which I already own, but on the other hand I can’t help thinking that I might look back in 5 years time and curse myself for not grabbing it while I had the chance.  What do you think?

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I recently installed the wp-openid plugin on this blog, to allow people to identify themselves with an OpenID in comments. One downside (pointed out by John) is that when you do this, your name above the comment will link to your OpenID URL rather than to your blog. Bummer!

So I deactivated the plugin and hunted around the Web for a solution. This post will explain the solution: how to delegate from your blog to your myopenid URL, so that in effect your blog URL becomes your OpenID URL. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able simply to enter your blog URL in the Website field of the comment form. Neat!

OpenID delegation works like this:

1. You set up an OpenID URL at www.myopenid.com (or some other openid provider)
2. You put some fancy code into the header of your blog that points openid authentication requests to the OpenID URL you set up already
3. There is no step 3.

The fancy code should be as simple as this:

<link rel="openid.server" href="http://www.myopenid.com/server" />

<link rel="openid.delegate" href="http://robertjones.myopenid.com/" />

but unfortunately not all OpenID implementations seem to support this – some, including the wp-openid plugin, only recognise the more sophisticated YADIS format. Setting up YADIS involves putting something like this in the header:

<meta http-equiv="X-XRDS-Location" content="http://www.jonesieboy.co.uk/yadis.xml" />

along with a  matching yadis.xml file on your server that looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xrds:XRDS xmlns:xrds="xri://$xrds" xmlns="xri://$xrd*($v*2.0)"

xmlns:openid="http://openid.net/xmlns/1.0">

  <XRD>

    <Service priority="10">

    <Type>http://openid.net/signon/1.0</Type>

    <URI>http://www.myopenid.com/server</URI>

    <openid:Delegate>http://robertjones.myopenid.com/</openid:Delegate>

    </Service>

</XRD>

</xrds:XRDS>

If you are using Wordpress, the wp-yadis plugin takes care of the whole thing automatically. If not, you can get full details of how to set delegation up on Sam Ruby’s blog: OpenID for non-SuperUsers.

As always, this technology is way too user-unfriendly now, but over the next few months I’m sure that euqivalents to the wp-yadis plugin will come along for most blogging platforms.

I’ll post a couple of comments to this post to show the use of my myopenid URL and the use of this blog as a delegated openid.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7133571.stm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0h0ApJAeSg[/youtube]

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We had an in-service session on Friday to announce the fact that we are planning to become a restorative school, and to give us some understanding of what this means.

Terri Kelly from the Better Behaviour Scotland Positive Behaviour Team gave us a quick introduction, and explained the process we will be going through to get all staff trained by 2009/10.

To quote from the Transforming Conflict site:

The restorative approach is based on the belief that the people best placed to resolve a conflict or a problem are the people directly involved, and that imposed solutions are less effective, less educative and possibly less likely to be honoured. In order to engage in a restorative approach to conflict and challenging behaviour people need certain attitudes and skills. Skills-based training can develop both restorative skills and attitudes.

I’ve been a big fan of Non-Violent Communication for many years, though I have not always managed to put it into practice, so I’m very enthusiastic about this development.  If we embrace it wholeheartedly as a school  it has the potential to transform our community.

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