Simplify and consolidate authentication

I'm using Vialogues and Ednode in the same browser (Firefox) and it appears that I had to log into each of them independently.

The login procedure needs to be as simple and consistent as possible unless you want to set a high bar for users. If you think of EdLab products as a suite, you want them compatible and integrated. Especially if you design for mashups of specialized products (e.g. embedding a Vialogue in a Pressible blog) you can't expect people to log in repeatedly as they use the tools.

(notice that this Ednote suggestion function put me into informer.com, which is now asking me to sign in or create yet another account in order to perform this function)

(The situation is especially problematic because the systems are buggy. I have encountered 3 login bugs in the last 15 minutes: Ednode had an erroneous welcome message on the login page, it wouldn't take my correct login until I used an incorrect login first, and the anonymous comment captcha didn't work. This last is probably a Informer bug.)

At a minimum all of the EdLab services should authenticate in common. A high priority would be common authentication with TC's gmail/my.tc.edu. In my view you should give the option of a common external authentication, like OpenID.

ChrisH