OSIdM4HE wiki page:
OSIdM4HE activity
Summary: Participants from a number of organizations have been collaborating on creating a coherent set of open-source Identity and Access Management (IAM) software packages to meet the needs of Higher Education and Research. The activity arose in response to concerns raised by many institutions that current products, both open-source and commercial, are not meeting their IAM needs effectively and affordably. A recent workshop resulted in a clearer understanding of the current state of affairs and commitments from all participants to work intensively to develop proposals for well-defined, fundable projects and collaboration vehicles. Next-phase reports are due by mid-September 2011. For now the activity remains invitation-only.
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If you've followed the research and higher-education (R&HE) IT scene in recent years you know that there is a lot of concern about the state of institutional Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems. IAM services are increasingly recognized as key to institutional security and efficiency, but building comprehensive systems from either commercial or open-source offerings is complicated and expensive. Many new requirements are creating pressure on currently deployed systems:
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Commercial products are widely deployed in R&HE, but some popular ones have changed their spots recently, making many sites unhappy. These products are usually expensive, and are often monolithic, hard to integrate with homegrown or open-source servicescomponents.
Conversations among R&HE IAM managers and architects in many venues have made it clear that lots of institutions need to take action soon, and that their requirements are very similar. At the same time, in the Kuali Rice project drivers have been identified from both new Kuali applications and those deploying Rice as institutional infrastructure to scale up KIM to meet enterprise IAM needs. These threads of interest came together at the joint Jasig / InCommon ACAMP meetings in Denver in May 2011, where a core group met to think big about how to address these issues. There was agreement that there is a real opportunity here; there is a lot of work to do and problems to overcome; and success is most likely if the resources of a number of organizations can be harnessed.
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Currently this activity is invitation-only while in the planning stage. We're hopeful that the projects will move forward and that a large community will want to participate. We'll do our best to keep everyone informed as events happen.
If you want For more information contact osidm4he-info@internet2.edu
Frequently anticipated questions
Q: Why is the project invitation only? When will my input be welcome, and will it be too late to make a difference?
A: We're keeping the number of participants small enough to have the type of extremely direct and frank discussion and analysis needed to make some tough decisions rather quickly. The reception of our proposals later this year will determine the shape of any new activities, and these will involve broad participation.
Q: Is this initiative trying to start a new open-source organization, and/or a new "brand", to compete with one or more of Kuali, Jasig, SAKAI, Internet2, InCommon, etc?
A: Regarding the brand: if there is to be a coordinated open-source IAM suite, it will need a label of some kind to identify it distinct from its component parts (and it won't be "OSIdM4HE"). Whether that is a new brand or an extension of an existing one is to be determined. Regarding the organization: at this time we are focusing on a vehicle for coordination among existing projects and organizations to ensure they can work together, not creating a new organization. The message is clear from the R&HE community that people would like to see existing development organizations work together better rather than make new ones.