Open ID today

Hi OpenID! Nice to see you here.

I want to confess that I had an OpenID ID as early as mid'07 but, since not too many sites were using it and it WAS difficult to set-up at the time, my ID has fallen into dis-use and now I couldn't remember it to save my life!

But I do believe in users controlling their own (singular) online identity which is why I signed up so readily before. At the time however, all the discussion about OpenID on the web was VERY technical. There wasn't much discussion about the bigger ideas/issues behind OpenID, to promote it to the general internet and raise consciousness about (and therefore demand for) OpenID.

It seems to me it would have been a good thing for the whole OpenID initiative if the two discussion tracks (the Technical and the Promotional) were run in parallel. I like to think that the point in time at which they intersect would have signalled the achievement of "critical mass", at which time OpenID would have been robust, simpler AND in wide us. Alas, it seems to me critical mass is still a ways off.

So anyway, my questions to you are:

1) What is the current state of Open ID technology nowadays? The most likely direction/s which the standard may head?

2) What would you say is the internet community's current "temperature" / level of interest for Open ID?

Thanks much!