[Web4lib] Call for Participation: NISO Announces New Work on Single Sign-On Authentication

[Cynthia Hodgson]

NISO Voting Members have approved a new work item on perfecting
single-sign-on (SSO) authentication to achieve seamless item-level linking
in a networked information environment. A new working group will be formed
under the auspices of NISO's Discovery to Delivery Topic Committee to create
one or more recommended practices that will explore practical solutions for
improving the success of SSO authentication technologies and to promote the
adoption of one or more of these solutions to make the access improvements a
reality.

This work item is the outcome of NISO's new Chair's Initiative, an annual
project of the chair of NISO's Board of Directors. NISO's current Chair,
Oliver Pesch (Chief Strategist, EBSCO Information Services), has identified
single-sign-on authentication as an area that would benefit greatly from
study and development within NISO, with a focus on a solution that will
allow a content site to know which authentication method to use without
special login URLs in order to provide a seamless experience for the user.
Possible solutions include providing a generic mechanism for passing the
authentication method from site to site; use of cookies to remember the
authentication method that was used the last time the site was accessed by
that computer; and/or providing a mechanism to discover if the user has an
active session for one of the common SSO authentication methods. "By
developing recommended practices that will help make the SSO environment
work better (smarter)," said Pesch, "libraries and information providers
will improve the ability for users to successfully and seamlessly access the
content to which they are entitled."

This new work follows on NISO's February 11th webinar on this topic, where
the issues and potential benefits of SSO authentication were looked at from
library, authentication tool, and content provider perspectives. The webinar
was the first step in addressing the issue of SSO authentication; the new
working group will enable all these perspectives to come together to focus
on the topic as a community. (You can view the presenters' slides from this
webinar at: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2009/authentication09/resources)

In addition to forming the working group, NISO will be establishing an
"interest group" e-mail list. If anyone would like to be a part of this new
working group or to join the affiliated interest group, contact the NISO
office at www.niso.org/contact.


Cynthia Hodgson
NISO Technical Editor Consultant
National Information Standards Organization
Email: chodgson at niso.org
Phone: 301-654-2512