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3. Second phase of the Alternative IdPs Working Group or another chartered group.
These solutions would have high value to the constituent group that the working group was tasked in addressing, i.e., institutions that do not have local resources, yet the work effort would not be as high as the recommendations above.
3.1. Develop criteria for assessing of IdP service vendors.
3.2. Identify and assess vendors. This would have to done repeatedly in order to keep current and provide value.
3.3. Author a cookbook on deploying the IdP strategies, including technical architecture, vendor selection, user support, operation, etc.
Of these, we recommend the following actions be taken as next steps:
Create appliances for insourced operation including the CANARIE/SWAMID IdP installer tool with configurations prebuilt for InCommon. Explore the method for easiest and most sustainable install possible which may be virtual machine, image, or simply the InCommon enhancements to the IdP Installer tool. (1.3)
Conduct outreach to those institutions that are not engaged in federation and would not know that alternatives for an IdP exist. (1.5)
Develop a mentor program for InCommon Members to help campuses get started. (2.2)
Develop criteria for assessing of IdP service vendors. (3.1)
Author a cookbook on deploying the IdP strategies, including technical architecture,vendor selection, user support, operation, etc. (3.3)
Notes
Items 1.1 (Deploy or contract for a fullyfunctional, outsourced Shibboleth blessed by InCommon with InCommon participating in the management of the solution) and 1.2 (Establish a process for certifying IdP support vendors blessed by InCommon.) are considered to be important tasks, but they rely on prior completion of 3.1 (Develop criteria for assessing of IdP service vendors).
Item 1.5 (Reach out to those institutions that are not engaged in federation and would not know that alternatives for an IdP exist) is of particular importance as the target audience for these activities is institutions that do not currently participate in InCommon. Some of the ways in which outreach can be done include:
- ○ Publish case studies to make a basic case for federation and describing the benefits of being a participating member of the InCommon federation
○ Compile a list of organizations to target
○ Conduct interviews of CIOs from institutions who are not members of InCommon
○ Create a “road show” for higher education venues, such as:
- Consortia like the Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges (CLAC)
- The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)
- Regional R&E network providers and The Quilt
- EDUCAUSE
- InCommon affiliated vendors (to tell their higher ed clients about InCommon, as well as federating their own services. They would first need to see the value of federation)
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To review the assessments of the various IdP strategies considered by the work working group please see:
- The Alternative IdP Strategies and Assessment Criteria (wiki page)
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