Shibboleth Developers

[Rhys Smith <>]

On 17 Feb 2011, at 14:52, Tom Scavo wrote:

> If I understand correctly, you want a language-specific description
> for each attribute? Well, there's no good way to do that as others
> have already pointed out, but I think it's a bad idea anyway. If you
> have to write words on the user interface to explain to the user
> what's going on, then it's not going to work. Have we learned nothing
> all these years of building discovery interfaces? (sorry :)


Not sure I agree with this. I agree that things need to be as simple as 
possible, but sometimes more is less... You either need to get the technology 
out of the way as much as possible (i.e. don't do user consent at all), or 
enable the user to make informed decisions in as simple as way as possible.

A simple form listing required / optional attributes with an explanation for 
why each is needed and check boxes on optional attributes - e.g...
*     Persistent Identifier (required): You have to provide this to use our 
service as we use it to manage your session on this site;
* [X] Email address (optional): If you provide your email address, we can 
notify you of site updates;
* [X] First and Last name (optional): If you provide your name, we can 
personalise greetings to you. 

(Or however you choose to do the UI - just a simple example there)

...has to be better than a list of attributes (eduPersonTargetedId, email, 
firstName, sn) with values, with no explanation at all as to why they're 
wanted and what the implications of providing or not providing them are. 
Surely?

People who aren't interested will just ignore the text and click on "OK", but 
it enables people who give a damn to make an informed consent.

(I agree with you in the context of discovery by the way - no amount of 
explanation will help people understand what's going on. But to release or 
not release attributes is conceptually a different kettle of fish and I don't 
think can't be compared directly...)

R.
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Dr Rhys Smith                                   e: 

Engineering Consultant: Identity & Access Management  (GPG:0xDE2F024C)
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