Newsline from EDINA
October 2006: Volume 11, Issue 3
The Shibboleth Development and Support Services (SDSS) team at EDINA has been a major part of a JISC initiative to introduce "federated access management" into UK higher and further education, specifically through the deployment of the technology known as Shibboleth.
A number of early-adopter projects and support projects have been funded to explore the implications of switching to this way of managing access to web-delivered services.
The move to federated access management is an essential part of JISC's work, according to JISC's Head of Development, Sarah Porter, who delivered the keynote address at the Access Management showcase event held in central London in mid-July.
Outlining why the change of approach was needed, Ms Porter suggested that federated access management offered a number of advantages, including the support of more complex and dynamic collaborations in e-research and e-learning, access to third party e-resources and the increasing adoption of such technologies internationally.
In addition, with the strategies of both the Department for Education and Skills and The Higher Education Funding Council for England emphasising the importance of links between sectors, there was the need to work with partners such as Becta (the schools IT organisation) and the National Health Service to support a co-ordinated approach to access management across all education and other sectors.
The SDSS Federation has been operational for over two years. Its development work will come to fruition with the launch on 30 November 2006 of "The UK Access Management Federation for Education and Research" (the "UK Federation"), and its subsequent expansion and development.
The UK Federation will be hosted by UKERNA, on behalf of JISC and Becta, with continuing technical support from the SDSS team.
While HE and FE institutions will be able to join the UK Federation from 30 November, JISC has recommended that in order to gain experience in this new way of working, institutions should consider joining the SDSS Federation now.