Can the Concordia Project Bring Coherence to Federated Identity?

Posted by Andy_Updegrove on May 10, 2007 1:30 PM EDT
ConsortiumInfo.org Standards Blog; By Andy Updegrove
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Robin Cover's XML Daily Newslink yesterday included a note on the formation of the Concordia Working Group by the Liberty Alliance Project (LAP). The story caught my eye for three reasons: it addresses a real problem, it's using an increasingly common approach to do so, and it's advancing the state of the art at the same time in a new and interesting way. I'd like to look at each of those reasons in greater detail.

First, let's review the real world problem: LAP is wrestling with a frustration that concerns us all: how can we take advantage of all that the Internet can offer without (a) having our privacy violated and our bank accounts emptied by the Bad Guys, while (b) not being driven crazy by endless user IDs, passwords, and other safeguards thrown up to deal with (a)?

The second reason is also systemic, but in a different way, as this Working Group is the latest in a series of initiatives born of the realization that it's increasingly rare for single standards organizations to be able to solve real-world problems for end-users, as compared to point solutions for vendors. The reasons include that there are two many moving parts, too many different organizations involved in standardizing those parts, and too much that has to happen quickly in order to keep up with technical innovation and commercial exploitation of new technologies.

The third reason is that this standards-based particular initiative is being launched using a hybrid methodology that borrows as much from an open source project as from a standards development working group. And very appropriately so, as well.

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GPG for authentication Sander_Marechal 4 1,361 May 11, 2007 4:57 AM

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