Have you ever thought of having one library card which entitles you to use all libraries in the world? Maybe not in the world, but say, in the whole of the United Kingdom.

The idea of federation in identity management is for organisations to share information about their respective users. The scope of sharing would clearly be defined by contracts between respective organisations participating in such federations. It is not a disclose all or nothing game anymore, but disclose on “need-to-know” basis. These agreements may be bilateral, or involve more than one organisation. Depending on trust level defined in a contract(s) they can also be “transitive”, i.e. an organisation may pass information from another organisation to yet another organisation, if a contract allows.

For example a library enters into a contract with a university. It allows the university students to use their resources. The library does not need to run a full identity management system for the students. It simply needs to verify their identity and address details. However the library may be interested whether a student using the library is in arrears with his or her tuition fees. Such student may be deemed as too much of a risk. Never mind helping the university by creating some pressure on the student to pay. Hence the university would allow the library access to their identity management system to obtain identity, address and tuition fee payment status. This would have been done on the spot: the basis would be a seamless access to the university’s identity management system and the agreement between institutions.

How to achieve such a scenario? Organisations, including libraries and universities, should work together and agree common standards for an exchange of identity information. Individual agreements would govern what information is shared. No big brother. No big silo to hold all information on everybody whose security may be compromised. No need to implement and maintain a large system. No single point of failure.

If you would like to find out more about this journey visit our web site:
http://www.identity-project.net

If you would like to help us as we prepare for this journey you may complete and return our Broad Survey questionnaire:
http://www.angel.ac.uk/identity-project/Resources.html

You may also find this questionnaire as a useful tool in assessing your institution just for yourself.

Greg Pytel
The Identity Project &
Communications Officer