Hi Mark

The simplest answer is that you can use the gateways now regardless of 
any decision to go with OpenAthens or Shibboleth post July 2008 as they 
are free to use up until July 2008, all institutions currently have 
access to Athens accounts and the process you have to go through are 
things you will need to do anyway before July 2008 - i.e. everyone 
(OpenAthens, Shibboleth or any other product) will need to be a member 
of the UK federation to access such resources. I'd strongly encourage 
people to have a look at going down this route rather than the added 
complexity of getting a typekey account. 

Joining the UK federation is just a matter of sending in an application 
letter and does not commit you to any particular technology at that 
point in time.  For more information look here:  
http://www.ukfederation.org.uk/content/Documents/JoinFederation. 

On a point of technicality, it would be wrong to describe the BBC Motion 
Gallery as OpenAthens compliant.  The BBC Motion Gallery is a member of 
the UK federation and can therefore interact with all Identity Providers 
within the UK federation - and Eduserv Athens is one of these identity 
providers so access can be granted.  The publisher has no control over 
this process beyond ensuring they can consume Eduserv attributes. For 
really detailed information see the informative guide provided by 
Eduserv: 
http://www.athensams.net/upload/athens/pdf/athens-shib-integration1.0.pdf.   
This is very different from a service provider with native Athens access 
such as we have seen in the past.  That might be just my overly 
technical mind worrying too much about details, but it is worth being 
aware of the differences in approach. 

Hope that helps but please do let me know if you need further information. 

Kind regards

Nicole

Mark Brown wrote:
> Hi Nicole
>
> Is the reason for this that several institutions may not yet decided
> which Athens - Shibboleth gateway to use?
>
> I would be a bit concerned if JISC started not to include 'Athens
> access' in how you describe resources - surely you should be asking
> providers and making it clear when you describe resources on the JISC
> Collections pages whether they were compatible with OpenAthens or
> Shibboleth Native, or both ?
>
> After all this is what you more or less do on the very useful JISC
> e-books comparison tool
>
> Thanks
> Mark 
>
>
> Mark Brown
> Electronic Services Librarian
> Library and Learning Resources
> Birmingham City University  
> 0121 331 5291
> Electronic Services:
> http://library.bcu.ac.uk/frameEservices.htm
> Troubleshooting Form:
> http://library.bcu.ac.uk/trouble.htm
> "If you don't make mistakes, you're not trying hard enough!"
> -Charlie Parker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nicole Harris
> Sent: 13 February 2008 12:46
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: BBC Motion Gallery
>
> I am little bewildered by why sites that are using Athens are not using 
> the Athens - Shibboleth gateway to access the resource rather than the 
> typekey option.  Is there any particular reason for this?  There will be
>
> an increasing number of resource providers who choose not to provision 
> Athens authentication and so for Athens sites the Athens - Shibboleth 
> gateway will become essential. 
>
> I'd very much appreciate any feedback on this!
>
> Kind regards
>
> Nicole
>
>   

-- 
Nicole Harris
Senior Services Transition Manager
JISC Executive
Brettenham House (South Entrance)
5, Lancaster Place
London WC2E 7EN

Tel: 02030066035
Mob: 07734058308


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