What OnStart sends you for diagnostics. (Click to enlarge)

I subscribe to the OnStar Safe and Sound plan (things like remote door unlocking, vehicle recovery, etc.). I was just notified that OnStar has begin a new service (included in the Safe and Sound plan) that give remote vehicle diagnostics. I think it's pretty cool that I can got to a Web page and be told about the health of significant systems in my car. My car is not online in the sense that it has an IP number, but can anyone doubt that that is somewhere in the future?

GM is trying hard to make OnStar catch and no wonder; It's a great business move for them: establishing ongoing relationships with their customers.

Given that I just got done checking on some bank account information online and then renewing a corporate license for an S-Corp I have, this OnStar thing got me thinking that I want a personal portal. I want a standard (RSS or Atom would work) for getting information out of place I have relationships with (my bank, OnStar, and the State of Utah, for example) and placing them on a single Web page where I can go and get status information. The technology exists. What does it take to make it work?

An identity metasystem would help. It's tough to do what I just envisioned without some standards about identity. Not impossible, but tough. Yodlee tried to do this during Web 1.0. But they've retreated from user-centrism to building portals for banks.