Hi Sean
Despite advising all institutions to join the UK federation irrespective of
whether they have outsourced their Identity Provider (IdP) to a third party
or not, our experience has been that institutions still don't understand
this very important issue.
Some institutions believe that because they have outsourced to a third party
they can automatically gain access to all the resources in the UK federation
because their outsourced identity provider is a member of the UK federation.
This group of institutions mainly includes those that have subscribed to
OpenAthens and the Athens-Shibboleth gateway.
The only thing we can do is to keep reinforcing the message that all UK
institutions must join in order to continue to access resources and services
available in the UK federation, hence the message in the newsletter!
Kind regards,
Jane
Ps. I think a text version of the newsletter is available?
**************************************************************
Jane Charlton | Access Management Outreach Co-ordinator | JISC
e: [log in to unmask] | w: www.jisc.ac.uk/federation
m: +44 (0)776 017 3223 | t: +44 (0)20 3006 6041 | f: +44 (0)117 33 10667
JISC, University of Bristol, 3rd Floor Beacon House, Queen's Road, Bristol
BS8 1QU
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for Shibboleth developments
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sean Dunne
Sent: 04 June 2008 13:49
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Getting the message across about membership
The JISC Federated Access Management newsletter circulated today says:
"There is some confusion at the moment about institutions that have chosen
to outsource their IdP to a third party provider. If you have chosen this
option, you will still need to join the UK federation ..."
[Major gripe: I had to type that text in myself because in the newsletter
it's part of an image and uncopyable]
In my experience, if institutions understand what "outsource their IdP to a
third party provider" means, they probably understand that they need to join
the federation to do so. It's those institutions that think they can use the
Athens-to-Shibboleth gateway without the necessity to join the federation
that are confused. We have had more than one message from people who don't
believe that access to the gateway is dependent on federation membership.
So my conclusion is that we should talk in a language that people
understand. Many more people have heard of the Athens-to-Shibboleth gateway
than have heard about outsourcing their IdP.
Best wishes
Sean
--------------------------------------------
Sean Dunne
Bibliographic & Scientific Services Manager
Mimas
Kilburn Building
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
U.K.
+44 (0)161 275 6065
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