Liberty Alliance Releases Client-Side ID Specs

Liberty Alliance, a global identity management group, released a series of specifications for corporate users and consumers to help control identity information on a range of devices including laptops and printers.

I don't see federation being meaningful for a long, long time. The Liberty Alliance is solving the *easy* problem of making the product interoperate. The harder problem is writing up the agreements between the federated partners that dictate how the federation processes and procedures will function. Mike Fratto NWC Senior Technology Editor

The consortium, which is made up of vendors, businesses and government entities, said its Advanced Client standards will help users manage a number of identity-based transactions from devices, such as gaining access to Web services.

The consortium's Advanced Client, the third stage of its client-focused identity management work, includes standards and technologies users can apply to manage these transactions. Users will be able to keep identity information on the device itself and manage that information even when that device is offline.