Specs Council

Specs council is the body defined in the Section 4.2 of OpenID Process Document. Its mandate is to review the proposed charter for a new or modified working group and advise the board on recommending it or to reject it based on the following reasons:

(a)     an incomplete Proposal (i.e., failure to comply with §4.1 of the IPR Document);
(b)     a determination that the proposal contravenes the OpenID community's purpose;
(c)     a determination that the proposed WG does not have sufficient support to succeed
        or to deliver proposed deliverables within projected completion dates; or
(d)     a  determination that the proposal is likely to cause legal liability for the OIDF or others.

The Specifications Council membership is defined in Section 2 of the Process Document – summarized:

  • The Board may select two persons from among the current Board members (or other appropriate persons, as determined by the Board)
  • The Eligible Editors may select five persons from among themselves (or other appropriate persons, as the Eligible Editors determine) to be their representatives on the Specifications Council
  • Eligible Editor is an editor of an approved or active spec within the last two years
  • 2-year term – no term limits


Current members are [ordered by their last name] who were confirmed in June 2025 to serve 2-year terms until June 2027:

  • John Bradley (Eligible Editor)
  • Mark Haine (Eligible Editor)
  • Dick Hardt (Eligible Editor)
  • Bjorn Hjelm (Eligible Editor)
  • Michael Jones (Eligible Editor)
  • Dima Postnikov (Director)
  • Nat Sakimura (Director)