News for and about the Internet2 community

[Lauren Rotman <>]

EDUCAUSE JOINS IDENTITY MANAGEMENT FEDERATION: INCOMMON

November 4, 2009--EDUCAUSE, the association for information technology  
in higher education, announced that it has joined the InCommon  
Federation, the U.S. identity and access management federation.

In an identity federation like InCommon, participating identity  
providers (such as colleges and universities) and resource providers  
(like EDUCAUSE) agree on a set of shared policies, processes, and  
technology standards. This greatly streamlines collaboration among  
multiple organizations because federation members agree on these  
policies and processes once, rather than each time they sign a  
contract with a new partner.

The InCommon Federation eliminates the need for researchers, students,  
and educators to maintain multiple passwords and usernames. Rather  
than requiring individuals to create new accounts for every service  
they wish to use, resource providers and educational institutions  
agree to use individuals’ institutional network account identifiers  
for access. This improves privacy and security for both individuals  
and institutions.

“The InCommon Federation is a community endeavor that represents the  
future of how colleges and universities will enable trusted  
interactions with each other, government agencies, and other  
organizations, such as EDUCAUSE, in a digital world,” stated Diana  
Oblinger, president and CEO of EDUCAUSE. “EDUCAUSE members who are  
also members of the InCommon Federation will be able to use their  
college- or university-issued usernames and passwords to access a  
variety of EDUCAUSE online services once the implementation is  
complete.”

With EDUCAUSE as part of InCommon, individuals at colleges and  
universities that are members of both groups will enjoy federated  
access to a range of services and resources available through the  
EDUCAUSE website. However, the importance of EDUCAUSE’s joining  
InCommon extends beyond the direct provision of EDUCAUSE services.

"The decision to join InCommon demonstrates, in a bold way, EDUCAUSE's  
responsiveness to its members and its strong commitment to protect its  
members' privacy," remarked Peter M. Siegel, CIO and vice provost for  
informational and educational technology at the University of  
California, Davis, and co-chair of the Higher Education Information  
Security Council. "As the trusted leadership organization for higher  
education IT broadly, EDUCAUSE is signaling to institutions of all  
sizes and types--from small private colleges to large research  
universities--the importance of building an identity and access  
management infrastructure that can be leveraged through federations  
such as InCommon. This strategic step exemplifies the important  
leadership role that EDUCAUSE can play within the higher education  
community."

With nearly 17,500 active members at over 2,300 colleges,  
universities, and related organizations nationwide, EDUCAUSE serves as  
one of the largest collaborations of higher education IT professionals  
in the world. InCommon now serves more than four million users at  
almost 200 institutions in the United States and demonstrates  
significant growth each year.

“One of the primary goals of federations like InCommon is to allow  
universities like Penn State to provide access to a wide range of off- 
campus resources while still protecting the security and privacy of  
their students, faculty, and staff,” explained Kevin Morooney, CIO and  
vice provost for information technology at Pennsylvania State  
University and incoming chair of the InCommon Steering Committee.  
“EDUCAUSE is not only simplifying access to online services for its  
members, it is also taking a proactive step that will lead other  
colleges and universities to strengthen their identity management  
practices and join the InCommon Federation.”

At its annual conference in Denver this week, EDUCAUSE recognized the  
field of federated identity management systems (http://www.educause.edu/179041 
) with the EDUCAUSE Catalyst Award (http://tinyurl.com/kw3ev3). The  
award highlights IT-based innovations and initiatives that provide  
groundbreaking solutions to major challenges in higher education. For  
a quick overview of federated identity management and its importance  
to teaching, learning, and research, please see “7 Things You Should  
Know About Federated Identity Management,” a recent EDUCAUSE  
publication, athttp://tinyurl.com/yc9nxb8.

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ABOUT EDUCAUSE

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association and the foremost community of IT  
leaders and professionals committed to advancing higher education.  
EDUCAUSE programs and services are focused on analysis, advocacy,  
community building, professional development, and knowledge creation  
because IT plays a transformative role in higher education. EDUCAUSE  
supports those who lead, manage, and use information technology  
through a comprehensive range of resources and activities. For more  
information, visit http://www.educause.edu.

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ABOUT INCOMMON

InCommon provides the U.S. higher education and research community  
with the common framework for trustworthy shared management of access  
to online resources. InCommon facilitates the development of a  
community-based common trust fabric sufficient to enable participants  
to make appropriate decisions about the release of identity  
information and the control of access to protected online resources.  
InCommon is intended to enable production-level end-user access to a  
wide variety of protected resources. For more information, visit http://www.incommon.org 
.

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