Now that you've embarked on your journey to get-going-with-incommon-federation, it's time to start thinking about what services you may offer. Most participants join InCommon so that members of their communities can access services provided by other participants, but many also provide services of their own to other participants (and many do both). This page provides an overview of how to provide your services to other InCommon participants.  Here's the 10,000 foot view:

• sp-determine-your-role. There are three layered roles in providing online services. Software Implementers create the software used to implement the service, Platform Deployers deploy and operate the software, and Service Operators establish the policies that govern the service offering, who is authorized to use it, etc. You may be filling one or more of these roles.

• Prepare your service for integration into the federation. What you need to do depends on your role:

  • Service Operator: offering-services-make-service-ready. Service Operators are responsible for adherence to InCommon requirements and best practices, as specified in the InCommon Participation Agreement and the documents it references, such as Baseline Expectations.

  • Platform Deployer: sp-make-platform-ready. Platform Deployers are responsible for deploying and operating the software in a manner that enables the Service Deployer to meet its obligations as an InCommon Participant. This also includes federation-friendly features of the platform that facilitate federation metadata management, identity attribute management, federated incident response, and testing.

  • Software Implementer: building-incommon-ready-software. Software Implementer must create software that enables Platform Deployers to meet their obligations. This also includes federation-friendly functionality, including user experience and support for federation identity attributes that facilitate authorization decisions.

• Register your metadata with the Federation. This is done by the Service Operator, as described in get-going-with-incommon-federation.

The linked pages above provide additional detail for each of these steps, including advice that should help you avoid operational problems and end-user difficulties in the future.