Shibboleth Consortium Formally Launched
After several years of close partnerships across the global identity and access management communities, the Shibboleth Consortium was formally launched with the ratification and signing of its Charter by Internet2, Janet and SWITCH.
This signing, which took place during the recent Internet2 Annual Meeting held in Arlington, Virginia, extends the commitment of national research and education networks in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland to the continued development of the Shibboleth software, as well as promoting its adoption globally.
Shibboleth was first released in 2003 and has been widely adopted by research and education communities around the world. The establishment of the consortium and commitment of funding by the members will ensure ongoing development and support of the Shibboleth software, allowing organizations to deploy it with confidence.
With the new consortium charter now in place, the consortium will begin to add additional investors to the project - attracting additional funding from Shibboleth-supporting NRENs, campuses and commercial partners - to further enhance the product, to improve documentation and training resources, and to promote Shibboleth in appropriate ways. The consortium will be reaching out to the community to identify where Shibboleth is making a difference, and to encourage stakeholders to participate in the roadmap and development process.
Shelton Waggener, senior vice president of Internet2, was appointed as consortium board chair until the end of 2013, with the position of chair rotating amongst the board members on a bi-annual basis. Additionally, the consortium board has selected Janet (United Kingdom) as consortium operator through the end of 2014 to manage the activities and to ensure delivery in accordance with the development roadmap. As the consortium operator Janet has responsibility to manage the consortium’s investments and coordination around Shibboleth development.
Shibboleth is SAML-based open-source software for enabling single sign-on authorization to access web services across different organizations. The Shibboleth Consortium was founded by Internet2, Janet and SWITCH to support development and adoption of Shibboleth, and is funded by its member organizations who share this common vision. More information is available at http://www.shibboleth.net/