1. A(nother) view on federation issues

2. Has become common place And federations are (or soon will be) in bloom
The F... word
Has become common place
And not only in AC space
And federations are (or soon will be) in bloom
This raises/reformulates additional issues
Reconciling base technologies
Agreeing on trust mechanisms
Aligning on schemas
Reaching applications
Coordinating metadata

3. SAML is the commonly agreed lingua franca for identity data exchange
The L... word
SAML is the commonly agreed lingua franca for identity data exchange
But unconquered kingdoms exist
Most of the Grid territory
BS infrastructures
MS and its strategy
WS are still most unexplored
Rebellions arise
Lightweight identity protocols
And even civil wars
Migration paths from 1.1 to 2.0

4. Moving towards conformance
In the protocol and profile forest, conformance must be at least assessed
Reference implementations
Testing facilities
Practical, hybrid approaches deserve to be explored
Identify minimal properties to be preserved
Let it happen

5. But it is not clear whether infrastructure should follow the two above
The T... word
Another common understanding is the use of public key techniques in building trust
But it is not clear whether infrastructure should follow the two above
Current federation software uses different kind of metadata structures to exchange public keys
But this poses maintenance problems
And many existing federations are based on PKI
But convergence seems the only path

6. Possibilities to merge
Merging the two paths
Possibilities to merge
Extensions can include references to Attribute Authorities
X.509 certificate <=> SAML AuthN assertion
X.509 AC <=> SAML Attr assertion
Pieces are already around
And approaches like PMAs and TACAR can play a key role

7. Schemas constitute the core of federation data exchange
The D... word
Schemas constitute the core of federation data exchange
But even the simplest agreement is lengthy and complicated
Even inside relatively small, tightly coupled groups
And recurrent discussions about the nature of data arise
New communities always try to bring their own parlance
And privacy constraints must be stated once again

8. Concentrate on data usage
Getting out of the cave
Concentrate on data usage
The common entitlement value for general license access in ShibEnable
Decouple attributes the SCHAC way
From specific ontologies
From local dialectal forms
Do not fear some redundancy
As long as a canonical representation exists

9. We are still far for reaching even half of the current applications
The A... word
We are still far for reaching even half of the current applications
Talking just about the Web-based ones
And there is a lot of dark matter around there
Simply legacy
I-do-it-my-way-and-no-other-possible
Commercial providers not willing to risk
And a great number of non-Web natural niches
To be filled asap

10. Keys for pervasiveness
Try to keep as close to applications as possible
Speaking their own language
Try to go beyond the Web cage
Keeping usability
Exploring WS is specially relevant
Pave the migration way
A mixed solution is far better than no solution
Proxy when no other choice exists

11. A federation is defined by its metadata
The C... word
A federation is defined by its metadata
Metadata distribution is a key issue
And directly related to the trust establishment process
Current methods simply do not scale
Growth requires additional features
Dynamic publication
Location
Service composition
And many potential metadata is still in an implicit state
Another case of middleware dark matter

12. Making interoperation possible
Metadata distribution is essential
Repositories and location protocols
Registries and naming schemas
Gatewaying and proxying are going to stay for a long time
To reach all the moving targets around
And policies are still to be defined
Many things to think about
As we are still at the very beginning