US Federations Discussion

[Ann West <>]

Hi Ying,

If you're interested in interfederation, I suggest you monitor the REFEDS 
email list. You can find out more at refeds.org. They also post their list 
archives.

Best,
Ann

----- Original Message -----
> Hi Ann,
> 
> Do you know if there is a mailing list from Internet2 Middleware
> Initiative where most of the interfed discussion occurs?
> 
> WAYF seems to be more involved in Kalmar than eduGAIN. I assume none
> of
> them has gotten far enough to include US InCommon yet.
> 
> Thanks,
> Ying
> 
> On 5/16/12 9:56 AM, "Ann West" 
> <>
>  wrote:
> 
> >
> >Hi Ying,
> >
> >We don't have an interfed working group per se, but are actively
> >involved
> >in interfed from the Internet2 Middleware Initiative in addition to
> >InCommon. MACE-Dir, for example, provides the care and feeding of
> >eduPerson, which is now used internationaly.
> >
> >InCommon does participate in REFEDS with other federation operators.
> >Interfederation is being actively explored and as you know there are
> >examples out there in the UK, Kalmar Union in the Nordic countries,
> >eduGAIN in Europe, among others. I noticed that the Danish
> >federation is
> >not a member of eduGAIN, the most likely interfed activity.
> >
> >I wonder if you can federate with them directly under an informal
> >bi-lateral agreement with separate metadata for now?
> >
> >Ann
> >
> >--
> >Ann West
> >Assistant Director,
> >Assurance and Community
> >Internet2/InCommon/Michigan Tech
> >
> >office: +1.906.487.1726
> >
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >> Hi Tom,
> >> 
> >> Thank you for your reply. It's good to know where we are. I'm
> >> aware
> >> that InCommon is one of the participants in REFEDS, which focuses
> >> on
> >> topics involved in international collaboration in research and
> >> education. Interfederation seems to be one of the topics. We are
> >> interested to know if InCommon is actively involved  in REFEDS
> >> effort, and whether there is a workgroup focused in this area. Any
> >> information helps.
> >> 
> >> Thanks,
> >> Ying
> >> ______________________________________
> >> From: Tom Scavo 
> >> []
> >> Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 3:20 PM
> >> To: Ma, Ying
> >> Cc: 
> >> 
> >> Subject: Re: [USFeds] suggestion on inter-federational SSO?
> >> 
> >> Hi Ying,
> >> 
> >> > We have a case where a professor at University of Southern
> >> > Denmark
> >> > (SDU) would like his students to access a Moodle application
> >> > provided at UCLA. The Moodle application is an InCommon SP. A
> >> > little
> >> > research led me to believe that SDU is a member of Danish
> >> > e-identity
> >> > federation WAYF. WAYF is a SAML 2 federation that supports some
> >> > eduPerson attributes including eduPersonPrincialName. I wonder
> >> > if
> >> > anyone out there knows about any possible solution of
> >> > inter-federational SSO that might allow user from a WAYF IDP to
> >> > access an InCommon SP.
> >> 
> >> This is a very reasonable request. However, there is no easy way
> >> to
> >> accomplish this. Currently there is no interfederation agreement
> >> between InCommon and WAYF.
> >> 
> >> > If this scenario is currently not practical,
> >> > would bi-lateral integration (metadata exchange) with WAFY or
> >> > SDU
> >> > IdP be reasonable alternatives?
> >> 
> >> Yes, that is always a possibility. Of course all it takes is a few
> >> repetitions of this exercise and we're back to square one, that
> >> is,
> >> how do we interfederate in general.
> >> 
> >> > Any other practices that address similar use cases?
> >> 
> >> I've heard of a number of similar use cases but as of yet there is
> >> no
> >> general solution to this problem.
> >> 
> >> Hope this helps,
> >> 
> >> Tom Scavo
> >> Operations Manager
> >> InCommon.org
> >> https://twitter.com/trscavo
> 
>