Thanks, Sean, for the clarification of which gateway is which (I was
about to write much the same).
> After July 2008 the Shibboleth-to-Athens gateway will only be
> available to institutions who sign up for OpenAthens. This
> leaves institutions which do not sign up for OpenAthens with
> a potential problem in accessing services which only provide
> an Athens interface.
Also a good point; but information collected so far from the (too many
that I've lost count) institutional libraries that have responded to
Nicole's request to send lists of their subscribed resources, with
access methods used, to [log in to unmask], suggests
that there are *very* few resources for which Athens is the *only*
available access method.
A formal announcement is awaited (eagerly!) from JISC of the options
that will be available for institutions to maintain access to *all*
their subscribed resources, without the cost of an OpenAthens
subscription. I suspect it won't be called a "gateway" - partly to avoid
confusion with the two gateways that (AFAIK) Eduserv will continue
running. But there should not be a need for institutions that have
adopted FAM/Shibboleth, and joined the UK Federation, to continue using
the Shib-to-Athens Gateway (and therefore to have to subscribe to
OpenAthens).
Work by commercial resource suppliers also seems to be hotting-up, so
that the number remaining that are not directly accessible via Shib and
the UK Fed should have diminished significantly before July.
John
--
John Paschoud
Projects Manager & Infosystems Engineer
LSE Library
London School of Economics & Political Science
10 Portugal Street
London WC2A 2HD
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion list for Shibboleth developments
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sean Dunne
> Sent: 15 February 2008 10:30
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [JISC-SHIBBOLETH] CrossFire / DigiMap Gateway news
>
>
> Al,
>
> It's important to distinguish between the
> Athens-to-Shibboleth Gateway and the Shibboleth-to-Athens Gateway.
>
> Eduserv's announcement yesterday concerned the
> Athens-to-Shibboleth Gateway. It means that institutions that
> take OpenAthens after July 2008 will be able to access purely
> federated services via this gateway, even if such services
> demand user accountability (and provided the institution
> signs up for that).
>
> After July 2008 the Shibboleth-to-Athens gateway will only be
> available to institutions who sign up for OpenAthens. This
> leaves institutions which do not sign up for OpenAthens with
> a potential problem in accessing services which only provide
> an Athens interface.
>
> Sean
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Discussion list for Shibboleth developments
> > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roberts A.L.
> > Sent: 15 February 2008 10:08
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [JISC-SHIBBOLETH] CrossFire / DigiMap Gateway news
> >
> > I'm probably missing something but didn't the announcement
> > from Eduserv
> > say that the upgrade would apply to the openAthens product
> and not the
> > gateway specifically. We have no plans to use openAthens but will be
> > using the gateway - so at the mo so this subject is still a
> > problem for
> > us.
> >
> > AL
> >
> > Mr. Alexander Roberts
> > Web Development Officer
> > Library and Information Services
> > Swansea University/Prifysgol Abertawe
> > +44 (0)1792 513239
> >
> >
>
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