OPENID - Extending
Institutional Identity
O
P
E
Into External Services
N
I
and Communities
D
Sean Mehan
F Head of Integrated Technologies
UHI
O
sean@smo.uhi.ac.uk
R
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
1

OPENID - Extending
Institutional Identity
O
P
E
Into External Services
N
I
and Communities
D
F
O
R
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
1

The plan...
O
P
E
N
• Motivations
I
D
• Benefits
• Risks
F
O
• Alternative Scenarios
R
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
2

Motivations
O
P
• There are many new and innovative
E
N services emerging on the Web.
I
• Multiple IDs are starting to effect larger
D
proportions of the online community.
F
• Students and staff are often clamouring to
O
utilize external services that are seen as
R
being better than institutionally provided
ones.
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
3

Opportunities I
O
P
E
N
I
• We can serve our users better, and give
D
them what they want by providing them
with an externally useable ID that they can
F
use to access external services without
O
having yaa.
R
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
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Opportunities II
O
P
E
• Integration point via ID to merge best of
N
breed (market led) services into
I
institutional framework.
D
• Allows for rich functionality / integrations
F
at the end of the ID pipe.
O
• Provides mechanism to mitigate risk of lsot
R
data for important processes.
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
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Opportunities III
O
P
E
• Allow for life long learning associations -
N
I
services for students.
D
• Manages in a structured way delegation and
F transfer through ID lifetime.
O
• SSO possibilities from infrastructural apps
R
for web 2.0 type mashups.
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
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O
P
E
N
I
D
F
O
R
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guanxi/
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
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Changes in mindset
O
P
E
N
I
• Institutions have to stop behaving in
D
bunkered fashion.
• Understand web penetration into
F
O requirements for service provision.
R
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
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Risks I
O
P
E
N
• We get fooled and id theft occurs.
I
D
• That shaky external service goes bust and
we loose all of that assessment data that
F
we are legally responsible for.
O
• YAP emerges!
R
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
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Risks II
O
P
E
N
I
• Your ID changes over time and we lose
D
you.
• You drop your ID and there is no pointer
F
O to your land based ID.
R
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
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Alternative Scenarios
O
P
• Why don’t we just let the students come in
E
N with their own, established identities?
I
• http://seanskye.myopenid.com/
D
• Many still are not net savvy.
F
• Data representation issues and
O
R (inter)national match for SIS.
• ....Institutional bias in terms of trust...
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
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Summary I
O
P
E
• Its out there, institutions should not be
N
putting their heads in the sand.
I
D
• It won’t be the final protocol, so don’t be
precious about adopting it or adopting the
F
next one.
O
• It provides opportunities for integrations
R
with external services / communities
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
12

Summary II
O
P
E
N
I
• Fits a more user-centric, Web 2.0 world.
D
• Provides opportunities to allow people to
F retain IDs of choice post institutional
O association.
R
E
D
U 8/11/2007 - LONDON - EDUSERV
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