Am I being paranoid and mixing cats and pigeons - will shibboleth  
access to athens resource no longer be available in August? Not all  
the providers are in the federation so where does that leave athens  
users who have moved lock stock and barrel to shibboleth gateway access?

Alistair

On 22 Jan 2008, at 11:59, Andy Swiffin wrote:

> As requested, the full text is below.   (I've already told them that  
> the
> url for the "faq" is broken :-(
>
> Andy
>
>
>>>> On 22/01/2008 at 11:29, in message
> <[log in to unmask]>,
> "Antonia
> Keith-Welsh" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>
>> Dear Colleague
>>
>> BENEFITS OF MORE OPENATHENS SUBSCRIPTIONS TO BE SHARED THROUGH LOWER
> PRICES
>>
>> It has become clear during the past month that, contrary to previous
>
>> expectations, the JISC will not be contracting with Eduserv for
> provision of
>> Shibboleth/Athens gateways for all universities and colleges from
> August
>> 2008.  (These gateways enable members of a university or college in
> the UK
>> Access Management Federation to access Athens-protected resources to
> which the
>> institution subscribes: FAQs at
>> http://www.athensams.net/federations/openathens/faq provide further
> details.)
>> The non-negotiable offer we received from the JISC did not approach
> the
>> projected full economic cost of the service in 2008/2009 or provide a
>
>> sustainable basis for the future.
>>
>>
>>
>> Gateway functionality remains an integral part of our OpenAthens
> offering.
>> As a result of the lack of a central contract for the gateways we now
> expect
>> there to be a larger number of OpenAthens subscriptions.  As a
> not-for-profit
>> provider of shared services to education and the public sector,
> Eduserv will
>> seek to share the benefits of the higher than anticipated
> subscriptions and
>> will do this through a reduction in the price of the service of up to
> 40% - or
>> more, if take-up is very high.
>>
>>
>>
>> Benefits of OpenAthens
>>
>> Implementing OpenAthens provides:
>>
>> i)                    continuity of one password, single sign-on
> access to
>> e-resources from a not-for-profit organisation that has delivered the
> Athens
>> access and Identity management shared service since 1995
>>
>> ii)                  access through a fully scaleable service that
> currently
>> handles over 10 million monthly authentications to 600 e-resource
> bundles from
>> more than 200 data providers
>>
>> iii)                 solutions that  work with your infrastructure
> with a
>> choice of managed directory or local directory service options
>>
>> iv)                ability to access Athens protected resources from
>
>> Shibboleth implementations and vice versa
>>
>> v)                 improving user experience through the customisable
>
>> MyAthens portal
>>
>> vi)                technical compliance enabling full participating
>> membership of the UK Access Management Federation on completion of
> its
>> formalities
>>
>> vii)              standards-compliant software, plus installation
> support,
>> for sites wishing to act as service providers for other members of
> the UK
>> Access Management Federation and/or other OpenAthens users
>>
>> viii)             access to the technology solutions that we create
> to
>> enable participation in other federations
>>
>> ix)                a supported solution that minimises the demands on
>
>> internal development and service staff.
>>
>>
>>
>> Pricing
>>
>> As shown below, we will reduce the price as increasing numbers of
>> universities and colleges commit to OpenAthens subscriptions.
>>
>> JISC Band
>>
>> 1) Published price previously announced
>>
>>
>>
>> 2) New price in the light of anticipated higher take-up
>>
>> 3) Price if over 300 institutions
>>
>> participate
>>
>> 4) Price if over 400 institutions participate
>>
>> A
>>
>> £9,500
>>
>> £8,075
>>
>> £6,650
>>
>> £5,700
>>
>> B
>>
>> £8,500
>>
>> £7,225
>>
>> £5,950
>>
>> £5,100
>>
>> C
>>
>> £7,500
>>
>> £6,375
>>
>> £5,250
>>
>> £4,500
>>
>> D
>>
>> £6,500
>>
>> £5,525
>>
>> £4,550
>>
>> £3,900
>>
>> E
>>
>> £5,500
>>
>> £4,675
>>
>> £3,850
>>
>> £3,300
>>
>> F
>>
>> £4,500
>>
>> £3,825
>>
>> £3,150
>>
>> £2,700
>>
>> G
>>
>> £3,500
>>
>> £2,97
> 5
>>
>> £2,450
>>
>> £2,100
>>
>> H
>>
>> £2,500
>>
>> £2,125
>>
>> £1,750
>>
>> £1,500
>>
>> I
>>
>> £1,500
>>
>> £1,275
>>
>> £1,050
>>
>>   £900
>>
>> J
>>
>>   £800
>>
>>   £680
>>
>>   £560
>>
>>   £480
>>
>>
>>
>> Positive feedback already suggests that take-up of OpenAthens is
> likely to
>> exceed our initial estimates, so we are now moving to the prices in
> column 2.
>> Prices in columns 3 or 4 (representing 30 and 40% discounts
> respectively)
>> will become effective if participation reaches the specified level by
> the end
>> of May.  (Given the current limited availability of online resources
> in some
>> colleges, we do not expect take up significantly beyond 400
> institutions at
>> this stage but we will make further reductions if we are proved
> wrong.)  We
>> will keep you updated on subscription progress between now and the
> end of
>> May. Institutions that commit to a three-year subscription will
> secure the
>> benefits of the reduced prices for the entire period. For
> institutions who do
>> not wish to make such a commitment we guarantee that the price for
> 2009/2010
>> and for 2010/2011 will in any case not exceed the 2007/2008 price
> previously
>> announced (column 1).
>>
>>
>>
>> Please complete the attached Commitment Form as soon as possible.
> Final cut
>> off for forms will be Friday, 30th May 2008.  We will use the firm
>> commitments that we have received at that stage to finalise pricing
> in
>> accordance with the thresholds specified, and will then incorporate
> these
>> reduced prices in the formal subscription documentation, which we
> will send
>> to you in June.  Invoices will be raised at the end of June, dated
> 1st August
>> 2008 so that payment can come out of your 2008/9 budget.  Please let
> us know
>> if earlier payment is of help to you.
>>
>>
>>
>> We are sending this email to our Chest and Athens contacts and to
> UCISA and
>> SCONUL lists: apologies for duplications. We have sought to answer
> the most
>> obvious FAQs at http://www.athensams.net/federations/openathens/faq,
> but if
>> you have any further questions or would like further information
> please
>> contact us at [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>  or
> by phone
>> on 01225 474380.
>>
>>
>>
>> We are disappointed that we have been unable to reach agreement with
> the
>> JISC on central funding for a Gateways service. We are committed to
> providing
>> real sustainable benefit and shared value to the HE and FE
> communities. We
>> believe that the measures outlined above are now the best way we can
> do this.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Keith Dixon
>> Access & Identity Management
>>
>>
>>
>> Eduserv
>> advancing achievment
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> tel: +44 (0)1225 474380
>>
>> fax: +44 (0)1225 474301
>>
>> http://www.eduserv.org.uk
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>>

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