Identity Matters

Hi, it's Felix again. I'm writing another entry to talk about provisioning, and I think it will be about as long as the last one on identity management by the time I'm done. While I'm finishing it up, I'd like to post just a few words about what we are doing here at Symlabs to turn some of these concepts into practical benefits for users. You see, we think this is not only an interesting field of technology to work in, but we really believe that once the infrastructure for identity management is rolled out so that everyone has access to it, the positive results for end users and providers will be tremendous.

It's our feeling that the picture of "what could be" is not widely appreciated yet (maybe because underlying technologies like LDAP, virtual directory, SAML, etc. are complex, or because a lot of different companies need to cooperate to deploy it), so getting the word out and proving that the solutions work in real world situations are high priorities if we want to lead the parade that delivers these benefits. And, we do.

With that in mind, I'd like to call your attention to a few events happening right now that Sampo Kellomaki, my colleague and Symlabs' Chief Identity Architect, is participating in for us. First up is ePortfolio 2006 in Oxford, England from October 11-13. This show is a huge international forum for the exchange of ideas about how to use electronic portfolio solutions in education, government and corporate infrastructures, and Symlabs is participating in the PlugFest on October 11 where we will demonstrate a solution for automated resume processing based on Human Resources XML interoperating with Liberty Alliance ID Web Services Framework (HR-XML and ID-WSF for those of you already familiar with the terminology). When this capability becomes routinely available it will let the HR industry incorporate a set of tools for identity-based and role-based access authorization to improve the security and operation of their online processes, while, from the user perspective, identity web services ensure the privacy of their information and simplify access to services with features like single sign-on. I'll talk more about these applications and individual pieces like single sign-on in upcoming posts, but if you can take advantage of a couple of industry shows that are right around the corner, Sampo will be delivering some very informative talks that we hope will give you a nice view of the picture ("what could be"), show you something about how it works, and maybe even get you to join the parade.

Sampo will be speaking at the ISSE 2006 Conference in Rome, Italy on October 12 about how to use the Liberty Alliance People Service in eGovernment applications, covering document submission in particular, such as corporate tax returns. At RSA 2006 Europe in Nice, France on October 25 he will be talking about Liberty People Service, but this time with a focus on consumer applications. Liberty People Service is the industry's first platform for managing social applications centrally, providing consumers (and enterprise users) with a single view of social relationships in a secure and privacy-respecting federated social network. Sampo will also demonstrate Liberty People Service at RSA 2006 Europe, by the way.

So, go look or listen if you can, and it would be nice if the parade gets bigger.