To further explain why I think that standards like OpenID and OAuth are critical to the evolution of a giant global graph I just had to post a diagram drawn by Francis Shanahan for one of his recent blog posts (click to enlarge).

It should be clear from just looking at this that a) solving this problem would massively improve usability and usage of the world wide web and b) no single company is going to globally solve it with a proprietary solution.

Great diagram.