InCommon Library Services

Title: Fwd: [tf-emc2] publisher interface study

this UK based effort has been mentioned on several of the calls. Here's the announcement of the award.

> Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 10:16:00 +0100
> From: Nicole Harris <>
> Subject: [tf-emc2] publisher interface
> study
>
> Hello All
>
> Please find below some details of the Publisher Interface Study that I
> mentioned yesterday:
> JISC Collections Service Provider
> Interface Study
>  
> Due to the organic evolution of access
> management federations there is significant variation in the
> terminology used to describe federated access management and the look
> and feel of the federated access process, leading to an inconsistent
> experience for End Users. This is particularly evident in the
> implementation of WAYF (Where Are You From) services - used to
> determine user affiliation.
>  
> Led by Cardiff University, the study will
> review end user scenarios for accessing protected resources and the
> general problem of "Discovery" inherent when using Federated
> access, examining current methods and terminology that attempt to
> solve the problem.  Recommendations will be made to JISC
> concerning suggested best practices, guidelines and how best to
> disseminate the conclusions - these will be shared with international
> groups interested in federated access developments for peer
> review. 
>  
> The study will use expertise of project
> staff, comprehensive end user testing with a variety of groups of test
> subjects, a workshop for gathering the views from service providers,
> and interfacing with stakeholders.
>  
> The study will deliver by Aug 09 a report
> dealing with:
>  
> Accessing resources

•  A review of the current mishmash of end user scenarios for accessing protected content.Including, but not limited to, IP Authentication, web proxying, Athens, Shibboleth, and credentials local to a service; and including the various types of user such as staff,  students, and walk-in users. Also, the role that technologies such as Open URL play in this space
• The Discovery Problem
• A general examination of the Discovery Problem encountered in FAM.
• Recommendations for further work.

> Existing Discovery Solutions

• A review of discovery methods currently in use on both the UK federation and other national federations. Including, but not limited to, WAYFs built-in to services, Federation WAYFs, and WAYFless URL; also including consideration of multi-federation within discovery. Including an examination of the terminology used in each of the cases.

> Cataloguing of the statistics of usage of
> each method and terminology class - how many SPs in the UK federation
> make use of each method/class.

• Also including the issues around accuracy within WAYFs (e.g. updating of information within a WAYF).
• End user Evaluation of Discovery Solutions.
• End user testing of each of the discovery methods.

>        
> Dissemination of Implementation Information

• A review of how information regarding service implementation such as mandatory and optional attribute requirements, WAYFless URL building (including deep linking), etc is completed and disseminated.

>  
> For further information about the
> background to the study contact:
> Mark Williams 
>  
> For operational detail and any questions
> or comments concerning the study contact:
> Rhys Smith 
>
> --
> ---------------
> JISC Executive
> JISC London office
> 1st Floor, Brettenham House South
> 5 Lancaster Place
> London WC2N 7EN
>
> tel: +44 (0)20 3006 6035
> mobile: +44 (0)7734 058308
> fax: +44 (0)20 7240 5377
> Anything in this message which does not
> clearly relate to the official work of the sender's organisation shall
> be understood as neither given nor endorsed by that
> organisation.