Whilst Microsoft have promised the release of CardSelector applications for all the major browsers e.g. Firefox, Opera etc, they have yet to deliver. During this time, the open source community has responded by releasing several different prototype Identity selectors for the popular Firefox browser.

The first one I discovered comes from a website called www.perpetual-motion.com. The plug-in on this page does something quite clever. It simple allows Firefox to launch the Windows CardSpace selector. In my opinion this is probably the best approach as it provides the users with a consistent UI that will make them more comfortable. As the CardSpace technology tries to expand, consistency and ease of use will be key to its adoption. This one is worth checking out.

For something more hard-core, Chuck Mortimore at xmldap.org has written a prototype Identity Selector for Firefox. You can get this extension from http://xmldap.org/ . At the moment it only supports SelfAssured cards, but I expect that the community will get behind this project and continue work on it.

The fact that the open source community are getting involved in CardSpace is a good feather in the CardSpace cap for Microsoft. They stuck to open standards and this community involvement shows that anyone can work with the standards to built a compatible component. I look forward to seeing more from the open source community in terms of Secure Token Services for Identity Providers and Card Selectors for the various browsers. Perhaps Microsoft won't have to do it afterall?