re: Liberty Alliance v1.0 Specifications Published
Founding Members:
American Express AOL Time Warner Bell Canada Citigroup
France Telecom General Motors Hewlett-Packard MasterCard
Nokia NTT DoCoMo, Openwave Systems RSA Security
Sony Corporation Sun Microsystems United Airlines Vodafone
New Members:
Aconite Technology, AGEA Corporation, Cauldron Solutions, CheckFree, Commerce One, Communicator Inc., ConnecTerra Inc., Consignia PLC, Critical Path, ECsoft Group, Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE), Helsinki Institute of Physics, M-Tech Mercury Information Technology Inc., Netegrity, Inc., NeuStar, National Institute of Urban Search and Rescue, NetGeo, PeopleSoft, Radicchio Consortium, SK Telecom, Skytech Solutions LLC, Software Information Industry Association, Stabsstelle IKT-Strategie des Bundes, Austria, Universität Hamburg, Waveset Technologies, Inc., Xerox Corporation.
>> Liberty Alliance Specs Out
Oliver Thylmann
InfoSync
16.07.02
Microsoft's Passport solution for universal log-in and storing of personal information gets competition; the Liberty Alliance Project has announced v1.0 of its specifications.
The Liberty Alliance Project has made publicly available version 1.0 of its specifications, following a speedy development path that has taken less than a year. The Liberty Alliance Project, like Microsoft's Passport initiative, attempts to establish a framework which will allow users to log in once and use several services that require a log in without the need to enter their username and password for each service. However, the framework also allows companies to share user data, which immediately raises privacy issues. Microsoft has received its share of negative feedback from privacy advocates related to its Passport initiative, but the Liberty Alliance seems to believe it can solve problems by walking a tight rope between benefits gained and privacy issues.
The specifications focus on the interoperability between systems to enable opt-in account linking and simplified sign-on functionality, allowing users to decide whether to link accounts with various identity providers. Liberty-enabled products have already been announced by several vendorsm, among them Sun, which will add support for the specifications to its Java environment as well as to its Open Net Environment, which is in direct competition with Microsoft's .NET initiative.
The now-released specifications will enable an open federated network identification infrastructure that can link both similar and disparate systems, allowing businesses to connect heterogeneous systems in order to handle identification and authorization.
As an example, a group of travel industry organizations implementing the Liberty specifications could enable their customers to move from website-to-website without re-authenticating their identity. They could then browse and book the best airline fares, reserve a hotel room, book a rental car and sign-up for a tour, ultimately planning an entire vacation in less time and with less hassle than what was previously possible. It would also be possible to perceive IM tools to link to each other so that users can use the services across boundaries, an important factor as the industry increasingly moves to add IM tools to mobile phones.
The opt-in account linking feature allows users to choose whether to link their accounts with different service providers. Using simplified sign-on, a user can log-in and authenticate at one linked account and navigate to another linked account, without having to log-in again. Companies linking accounts can communicate which kind of authentication method should be used when the user logs in. Once a user logs out, he or she can automatically log out of all active connections, independently of the client application, be it on a fixed or mobile platform.
Privacy minded users will be pleased to learn that the Liberty version 1.0 specifications do not involve the exchange of personal information. Instead, they involve a format for exchanging authentication information between companies so the identity of the user is safe, and specific details about the customer's identity are not shared. The user may choose which accounts he/she wants to link, and may maintain separate identities in different locations while still benefiting from a seamless sign-on experience.
The next version of the Liberty Alliance specification is already in the works, with one of the most sought-for features being permission-based attribute sharing. Such sharing would allow a user to share personal information and preferences with a set group of companies (circle of trust) they use the service with. For instance, a meeting with multiple participants could be booked at a point in time where all were available, provided that all participants enabled sharing of their calendar information - leaving a client solution to suggest alternatives based on the information at hand.
The full specifications can be found on the Liberty Alliance website:
projectliberty.org
About the Liberty Alliance Project
The Liberty Alliance Project is an alliance of more than 60 technology and consumer organizations formed to develop and deploy open, federated network identification specifications that support all current and emerging network devices in the digital economy. Federated identity will help drive the next generation of the Internet, offering businesses and consumers convenience and choice. Membership is open to all commercial and non-commercial organizations.
- Eric - |
