Open ID ... how, when and why?

Just wondering if anyone has thoughts on the role of Open ID in campus systems.  If Open ID gains traction among faculty, staff and students, might there be growing expectation for use in select campus systems?  How would that work, why would might you consider it and what systems would be appropriate? I haven't thought deeply about it but it definitely intrigues me. 

On a side note, the OSS Watch team blog has an interesting entry from last week about a potential collaboration between Microsoft and the Open ID standard.