News and information about InCommon Academy offerings

[Dean Woodbeck <>]

Augsburg College in Minneapolis has become the 200th participant in the 
InCommon Federation. Participating organizations include colleges and 
universities, research labs, agencies of the U.S. government, and 
private companies that offer web-based resources and services.

When institutions join InCommon, their faculty, researchers, students, 
and staff can use their organizational IDs and passwords to access 
on-campus and off-campus services, rather than maintaining multiple 
passwords and usernames. As a result, people use the same credentials to 
access such third-party services as library databases, multimedia 
content, research information and services provided by U.S. government 
agencies, and career center systems and tools.

"We welcome this continued growth of InCommon," said Kevin Morooney, 
chief information officer and vice provost for information technology at 
Pennsylvania State University and chair of the InCommon Steering 
Committee. "Augsburg is an excellent example of the direction of 
InCommon's recent growth, as we see increased interest from colleges and 
universities of all sizes."

InCommon allows universities to provide access to a wide range of 
off-campus resources while still protecting the security and privacy of 
their students, faculty, and staff.

The federation includes two types of members - identity providers and 
service providers. The identity providers - like colleges, universities, 
and research agencies - already supply user IDs and passwords to their 
students, faculty and staff to allow them to access campus resources 
like email. Service providers deliver some type of online resource, such 
as a library database or a course management system.

When these organizations join InCommon, they agree on a set of shared 
policies, processes, and technology standards. One of those standards is 
a process for single sign-on, so one set of credentials provides access 
to resources from any service provider, without the need for another 
user ID or password.

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. It also 
improves security and privacy, as the identity provider releases only 
the information needed for the service provider to make an access 
decision. Many times, this does not require the release of even an 
individual's name or other personally identifiable information.

InCommon is one of the organizations recognized with the 2009 EDUCAUSE 
Catalyst Award, honoring innovations that provide groundbreaking 
solutions to major information technology challenges in higher education.

For more information on InCommon and a full list of participants, visit: 
http://www.incommon.org

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Dean Woodbeck
Internet2/InCommon Outreach