Hi everyone,

Here's a question about competing(?) federations for SAML-based authentication. We use Shibboleth as the preferred Web-based authentication method on campus, and we of course have long been members of the InCommon federation. At least one vendor is starting to promote OpenAthens (formerly Athena) for authentication. OpenAthens claims some ability to interoperate with Shibboleth. I'm trying to see the concrete benefit of joining OpenAthens as well as InCommon.

Have any of you InCommon institutions considered joining OpenAthens? What, if anything, tipped you towards picking up an additional federation?

Thanks for sharing any experiences,

-Tod


Tod Olson <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Systems Librarian
Interim Director for Integrated Library Systems
University of Chicago Library