Pete Rowley

Yes, it’s that time again. If you have any interest in seeing what has been going on, what is going on, and what is about to go on in digital identity I suggest you sign up for IIW2007 to be held in May at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. You won’t be sorry, but you might get caffeine shakes.

Ping Identity has re-affirmed what they were saying at the Digital ID World recently, that they will open source their Java STS code primarily for use by the OSIS project as a Managed Card IdP/SP Server. This is a welcome development that should help speed along various projects. Cheers to the guys at Ping.

So, where is the digital you?

There has been a lot of focus on user-centric identity in recent months, but let us not forget about the identity metasystem. The identity metasystem concept is important because it recognizes that even if it is desirable for there to be one protocol that everyone speaks, to get there from here requires a pragmatic acceptance that there will be more than one protocol in the meantime. While choice is a marvelous thing in many situations, it isn’t something that the vendor relishes at the protocol level. When the customer comes calling must you turn them away because they speak OpenID and your software speaks SAML? Recalling my blog regarding the Microsoft Open Specification Promise, multiple standards mean your bolts don’t fit your nuts unless you buy them both from the same vendor. The identity metasystem must provide the necessary adapters so that different systems produced by different vendors on different platforms can at least understand each other, even if they don’t speak the same language.

One might ask who will be building the parts that make the system a metasystem. Clearly, one vendor who is doing that is Microsoft with CardSpace. However, one vendor a metasystem doesn’t make. To make the identity metasystem a reality it must come from multiple vendors, it must be ubiquitous, and it must be in the DNA of the platform. This is why open source efforts such as the Higgins project are so important, because they provide the means to make the identity metasystem cross-platform, cross-vendor, and cross-identity context. This might be considered the primary focus of the OSIS project as a whole - to make the identity metasystem happen. Red Hat supports the efforts of these projects and any project that works to make the identity metasystem a reality.

The correct answer to the question “where is the digital you?”

Everywhere.

Sometimes a promise is better than just any old promise, sometimes it is worded in such a way as to legally bind the promiser from reneging on that promise in any meaningful way. There is a legal term used for this kind of binding promise: estoppel. Sometimes such a promise might be made by mistake, and estoppel is used to make the promising party honor the promise in court. That is, it is used to defeat a lawsuit made by the promiser against you. Sometimes the promise is made by the promiser with the intention of binding themselves to the promise with full knowledge the promise essentially relinquishes any legal claim.

Why is that useful? Well, in many spheres standards are used to ensure interoperability between vendors, so that for example a nut and bolt vendor can produce nuts and bolts compatible with other nut and bolt vendors, and software vendors can produce software that interoperates with the software of other vendors. This is why when you buy a nut or a bolt you are concerned only with the size of the part and not which vendor made the part with which it is to connect. However, standards that have technology that is covered by current patents or even patent applications present a problem for the vendors that do not own the patents. At any time the patent owner may reveal the patent ownership, charge fees, or even deny a vendor the ability to create or sell technology based on the compromised standard. It doesn’t stop there, patents allow the holders to sue end users, i.e. the customers of those vendors. The term open standard is often used to describe these standards that are intended for interoperability, but of course the current system of software patents prevalent in the US can often render the “open” part redundant. However, a patent holder might decide that their interests are better served by wide implementation of a standard, and in these cases a binding promise makes good sense.

As much as patents might be painful for corporations, they have an especially chilling effect on open source. You see corporations can assess a risk of being sued and decide that the level of risk is acceptable. It has become a cost of doing business. However, in the open source world each code contributor to a project is potentially liable, each end user is liable, and each distributor is liable. A distributor of open source software has a special, moral, responsibility to protect those to whom they distribute and those who are subsequent recipients. It is not possible to assess risk in the same way as a proprietary software company because all of those subsequently effected by the decision cannot possibly have an input. If it is known that there are even potential patent issues with a software technology, it behoves the potential distributor to pass. In fact, the GPL requires it. That is why you will not find an mp3 player as part of any Red Hat distribution - the mpeg 3 “open standard” specifies patented technology, so despite what you may have believed, it isn’t “free”, not as in beer, nor any other way.

But make a promise, a legally binding promise, that you will not assert your patent claims against anyone who implements those claims in their software and you have something that open source can work with. That is what Microsoft just did with regards to the WS-* set of web services standards. This step enables open source implementations of the underlying protocols of CardSpace a.k.a. infocards. Given the interest that OSIS has in this space, that is pretty significant. Without such a promise, infocards would be a single vendor proprietary technology, and that would be in violation of law 5.

Let’s review the opening:

Microsoft irrevocably promises not to assert any Microsoft Necessary Claims against you for making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any implementation to the extent it conforms to a Covered Specification…

I think we have a winner, and in no small part due to the efforts of Kim Cameron and Mike Jones of Microsoft. Thanks guys!

The Liberty Alliance made a bold statement in Vancouver last week when it opened its doors for the first time to the hoi polloi. Now this was something interesting enough to demand a visit in of itself, but with the addition of an Open Space after the Liberty meeting, well, you knew I was going to be there right?

The first two days consisted of the regular business of the Liberty Alliance where visitors were allowed to attend any session except for the super secret board stuff. I attended many of the technical sessions which were interesting, though sometimes hard to follow as an outsider without access to the documents under consideration. I also took part in a session around privacy concerns that not only assured me that Liberty has them but that they are serious about dealing with the issues. The conversation turned at one point to outside perceptions of Liberty itself and its lack of openess to its internal process and draft documents. Somewhat ironic was the point made that nowhere was there to be found any information regarding the location of the Liberty conference, at least not to those without access to internal websites. A consequence of this being the first open meeting no doubt. In all, an interesting and worthy meeting.

The final two days were spent on the Open Space which was run in unconference format by Kaliya Hamlin and was excellent as usual. Topics ranged from SAML to Liberty People Service to how should we rename this user centric identity thing? Kim Cameron wrapped up with a lunchtime introduction to CardSpace that by popular demand lasted for nearly two hours. At one point Kim was asked whether Apple would have an identity selector like CardSpace and Kim redirected the question to me in my capacity as OSIS representative. As the newly appointed unofficial spokesman for Apple I suggested that if Steve Jobs would call me I’d hook him up.

So Steve, call me.

Kim Cameron has blogged about a conversation we have been having recently about the OSIS (Open Source Identity Selector) project. Negotiations have been underway for many months in order to get to a point where all parties are comfortable that legal and other issues are in order. I am happy to say that Red Hat has been involved with this process from the beginning.

I agree with Kim on the importance of the participation of Red Hat. As the leading Linux distribution it provides a platform for the project and a significant distribution channel, all things required for ubiquity. Ubiquity and cross platform support is a major goal for OSIS and the identity meta-system in general.

When I met with Paul Trevithick and Mary Ruddy some months ago to discuss Higgins it was clear to me that there was an alignment in project goals. Architecturally Higgins represents an uncannily good fit so I am very pleased to see the client effort folded into the Higgins project. Perhaps Higgins suitability is not so surprising given the exchange of ideas and collaboration that has been going on in the identity gang.

In the coming months I hope to be in a position to enable support for information cards on this site with end to end open source software. Watch this space.