Industry Leaders to Form Network Identity Alliance-Liberty Alliance Project

[R. A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


Status:  U
From: Somebody
To: "'R. A. Hettinga'" <rah at shipwright.com>
Subject: Industry Leaders to Form Network Identity Alliance-Liberty
Alliance Project
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 12:29:49 -0500

Industry Leaders to Form Network Identity Alliance-Liberty Alliance Project


Representing Over a Billion Names, ActivCard, American Airlines, the

Apache Software Foundation, Bank of America, Bell Canada Enterprises,

Cingular Wireless, Cisco Systems, CollabNet, Dun and Bradstreet, eBay,
Entrust, Fidelity Investments, Gemplus, GM, Global Crossing, i2, Intuit,
Liberate Technologies, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, O'Reilly and Associates, Openwave,
RealNetworks, RSA Security, Sabre, Schlumberger, Sony Corporation, Sprint,

Sun Microsystems, Travelocity, United Airlines, Verisign, Vodafone and

More Create Multi-Industry Business Alliance

ProjectLiberty.org Goes Live; All Interested Parties Invited to Drive

Specification and Development Process

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- ProjectLiberty.org, In an
unprecedented collaboration between some of the world's largest businesses
and industries, representing over a billion customers, employees and
business partners, 33 major companies announced today the formation of an
alliance, code named Liberty Alliance Project (www.projectliberty.org). The
alliance will develop and deploy an open solution for network identity.

The charter members of the Liberty Alliance Project, representing a broad,
global spectrum of industries, intend to create an open, federated solution
for network identity -- enabling ubiquitous single sign-on, decentralized
authentication and open authorization from any device connected to the
internet, from traditional desktop computers and cellular phones through to
TVs, automobiles, credit cards and point-of-sale terminals. The alliance
represents some of the world's most recognized brand names and service
providers, driving products, services and partnerships across a wide range
of consumer and industrial products, financial services, travel, digital
media, retailing, telecommunications and technology.

Any organization interested in supporting the Liberty Alliance Project can
visit www.projectliberty.org for details. The Liberty Alliance Project plans
to begin immediately in setting out a roadmap to address business practices,
privacy, consumer adoption and technology evolution.

"It's recently become clear that the software for managing user identity and
authentication is one of the key building blocks of the emerging internet
operating system," comments Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of technology
publisher O'Reilly & Associates and an activist for open source software and
internet standards. "It's so fundamental that a widespread consensus has
emerged that this is a technology that shouldn't be owned or controlled by
any one player. Instead, we need an open, distributed system with
implementations available from multiple technology providers and identities
issued by many parties operating in a web of trust. Project Liberty is an
important step in that direction. I'm hopeful that it will provide a forum
for interoperability between the proposed identity schemes available from
individual software or service vendors."

"Security and identity are facets of almost every big issue in the digital
world today," said Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings, and former
chairman of ICANN, an organization that sets policy for the Internet's
infrastructure, including the Domain Name System. "They touch it all:
privacy, anonymity, integrity of data and safety of assets, freedom of
speech, legitimacy, trust and trust worthiness, branding, visibility of
marketers and visibility to marketers. Therefore, it's important for
individuals to have a convenient way to identify themselves (and their
counterparts)."

The Liberty Alliance Project has three main objectives:

-- 1. To allow individual consumers and businesses to maintain personal

information securely.

This enables a decentralized approach to garnering personal or

proprietary information, and promote interoperability or service

delivery across networks.

-- 2. To provide a universal, open standard for "single sign-on," which

users and service providers can rely upon, and leverage to

interoperate.

Internet single sign-on will allow users to log in once, and be

authenticated for a spectrum of network services supporting the

Liberty standard, between and among web sites, as well as network

services even if those services are provided by different

businesses.

-- 3. To provide an open standard for network identity spanning all

internet-connected devices.

This allows providers of network services, and the infrastructure

that enables them, to adopt a neutral, open standard, available

wherever the internet is available, to enable secure and reliable

identity authentication across handsets, automobiles, credit

cards -- literally any device attached to the internet.

About the Liberty Alliance Project

The Liberty Alliance Project (www.projectliberty.org) is an organization
being formed to create an open, federated, single sign-on identity solution
for the digital economy via any device connected to the internet. Membership
is open to all commercial and non-commercial organizations.

NOTE: Liberty is a code name for this formative initiative. The charter
members expect to finalize an alliance agreement regarding organization and
joint development of intellectual property within the next 60 days.

Company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Liberty Charter Member Quote Sheet

Apache Software Foundation

"Freedom of information on the World Wide Web depends on the freedom of
individuals to choose the means and mechanisms through which they supply or
access that information," said Roy T. Fielding, chairman of the Apache
Software Foundation and co-author of the Internet standards for URI and
HTTP. "The Apache Software Foundation's goal is to ensure that the critical
infrastructure of the World Wide Web remains open and available to any
software developer. We are pleased to help form the Liberty Alliance, since
open access to the methods and protocols for user authentication will be
essential for future large-scale e-commerce and subscription-based Internet
services," said Roy T. Fielding, Chairman, The Apache Software Foundation.

PR Contact: Roy Fielding at 949-609-4747 or fielding at ebuilt.com

Bell Canada Enterprises

"Our goal is to ensure that customers have absolute confidence in the
security and privacy of their personal information which flows across
communications networks," said Michael Sabia, president of Bell Canada
Enterprises Inc (BCE). "As a member of the alliance, BCE will participate in
an international effort to establish a global standard for accessing
communications systems through a single sign-on solution. We see it as a key
enabler of BCE's convergence strategy that will allow customers to easily
access any type of information, in any format, from any device."

PR Contact: Don Doucette at 514-786-3924 or don.doucette at bell.ca

CollabNet

"For distributed authentication to work, a truly distributed architecture is
needed, and that's not possible without community-developed standards and
software," said Brian Behlendorf, CTO and co-founder of CollabNet, and
president of the Apache Software Foundation. "We're very happy to see this
particular group of companies and organizations recognize the need for a
genuinely open solution, and look forward to participating in the Liberty
Alliance Project."

PR Contact: Jacki DeCoster at 650-228-2537 or 800-408-5915 or
jacki at collab.net

Dun & Bradstreet

"Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) is participating in the Liberty Alliance Project
because we believe information standards such as the D&B D-U-N-S Number will
enable the growth of eCommerce and feed the adoption of Web services. In
order to make eCommerce work, there is a need to adopt common practices and
open standards for network identity. D&B is a key enabler of eCommerce, and
we look forward to contributing and helping to build the universal
information standards and protocols which will facilitate safe and trusted
eCommerce," says Larry Kutscher, president, D&B B2B eCommerce.

PR Contact: Tara Lynch at 908-665-5639 or lyncht at dnb.com

Entrust, Inc.

"Our participation in the Liberty Alliance is important to help strengthen
enhanced Internet security for government, commerce and industry as more and
more high-valued transactions are being conducted over the Internet," said
Mark Davis, chief marketing officer, Entrust, Inc., a leading global
provider of enhanced Internet security services and solutions. "Maintaining
privacy and security over these transactions is critical for our customers,
which include government agencies, financial institutions, healthcare
organizations and many, many others."

PR Contact: Carrie Bendzsa at 613-270-3455 or carrie.bendzsa at entrust.com

Gemplus

"Gemplus is delighted to be affiliated with the world class organizations
that constitute the Liberty Alliance," stated Dr. Mel Slater, senior vice
president of Gemplus. "With years of experience in delivering smart
card-based authentication and identity solutions to the global marketplace
and production capacity of over half a billion smart cards per year, Gemplus
is poised to deliver a unique perspective to the Liberty Alliance. Smart
cards, already in use by millions of people around the world, enable users
to securely identify and authenticate themselves on the Internet through
many devices, including home PCs, cell phones and point-of-sale terminals.
The interactive environment that is being addressed by the Liberty Alliance
represents a momentous step for the industry, empowering smart card users to
enjoy greater liberties than ever before."

PR Contact: Kerry Butler at 215-390-2840 or Kerry.Butler at gemplus.com

Global Crossing

"Joining this historic alliance gives us the opportunity to participate in
the redefinition of how online identities will be established, managed and
optimized in the future," said David Walsh, President, Global Crossing.
"Particularly as Global Crossing continues to build out not just network
services but enable entire communities of interest, the development of
common protocols for managing the people and information within those
communities is extremely powerful. Beyond industry extranets, we also see
tremendous opportunities to inter-connect industries, which is only possible
when common standards like IP and now network identity solutions like this
are made available."

PR Contact: Karen Hilyard at 212-620-7100

General Motors

"The objectives of the Liberty Alliance Project are in line with General
Motors' pursuit to leverage the most effective technology solutions offered
for the digital economy," states Ralph Szygenda, GM Group Vice President,
Chief Information Officer. "Secure information management and
interoperability across the Internet landscape are vital issues to GM as we
use digital technologies to expand our strategic options and reinvent
relationships with our customers, employees, and business partners. It's a
progressive, innovative alliance that makes sense for GM."

PR Contact: Eric Apodaca at 313-667-4861 or eric.apodaca at gm.com

Liberate Technologies

"As Internet enabled transactions and commerce are a core component of
Liberate's software for interactive television, security and simplicity for
consumers are of paramount importance to Liberate," said David Limp, Chief
Strategy Officer, Liberate Technologies. "We are happy be a charter member
of the Liberty Alliance Project, and applaud this broad organization's
leadership in driving a safe, standardized and streamlined means for
consumers and businesses to make their own choices concerning network
identity."

PR Contact: Tom Neumayr at 650-701-4065 or tneumayr at liberate.com

Nokia

"The way in which people communicate with each other is rapidly changing.
The various elements of our lives are coming together through mobile
communications. Personalization, location specific services and time
sensitivity are becoming increasingly important as individuals are building
their own mobile worlds. In this world the mobile phone has evolved into a
centerpiece of personal life management, enabling complete personal
connectivity between people, services, devices, applications, organizations
and locations. Therefore, it is crucial to deliver open industry
specifications for all relevant technologies, including management of online
identities," says Pekka Ala-Pietila, President, Nokia. "We can enable a new
generation of secure and flexible mobile Internet services through
initiatives such as the 'Liberty Alliance.'"

PR Contact: Jyrki Rosenberg at +358-9-5116-2865 or jyrki.rosenberg at nokia.com

NTT DoCoMo

"The number I-mode subscribers has already passed 27 million. We are now
becoming one of the biggest ISPs in the world," says Takeshi Natsuno,
Managing Director of NTT DoCoMo. "I think that we can generate new value to
our customers by combining the strategies in the Liberty alliance and our
platform."

O'Reilly & Associates

"It's recently become clear that the software for managing user identity and
authentication is one of the key building blocks of the emerging internet
operating system. It's so fundamental that a widespread consensus has
emerged that this is a technology that shouldn't be owned or controlled by
any one player. Instead, we need an open, distributed system with
implementations available from multiple technology providers and identities
issued by many parties operating in a web of trust. Project Liberty is an
important step in that direction. I'm hopeful that it will provide a forum
for interoperability between the proposed identity schemes available from
individual software or service vendors."

PR Contact: Lisa Mann at 707-829-0515, ext. 230 or lisam at oreilly.com

RSA Security

"We are committed to the ideals of the Liberty Alliance, and looking forward
to working with our new partners to create the standards, processes and
products required for an open, federated solution for online identity," said
Art Coviello, CEO and president of RSA Security. "As a leader in e-security,
we believe we can offer the Liberty Alliance valuable expertise in the areas
of user authentication, access rights management, data privacy and
transaction integrity."

PR Contact: Timothy Powers at 781-301-5344 or tpowers at rsasecurity.com

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

"Interoperability requires cooperation and collaboration, something Sun
understands and endorses in the evolution of its systems and software
platform," said Scott McNealy, Chairman and CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
"Identity is a common thread throughout all network services -- the Liberty
Alliance Project will leverage and cooperate with existing open, and
interoperable standards that will unleash an internet that roams with you
and your customers, wherever they and your business partners take you. We
stand proudly alongside such formidable industry partners in the pursuit of
that objective."

PR Contact: May H. Goh at 408-517-5520 or may.goh at sun.com

Vodafone

"Vodafone is a supporter of open standards because they drive customer
choice and competition. We look forward to working with the Liberty Alliance
members to develop an open approach to network identity," said Alan Harper,
Vodafone Group Strategy Director.

PR Contact: Jon Earl at +44-0-1635-674401 or jon.earl at vodafone.com

MAKE YOUR OPINION COUNT - Click Here

http://tbutton.prnewswire.com/prn/11690X21826053

SOURCE Sun Microsystems, Inc.

CO: ArTile Microsystems, Inc.

--- end forwarded text


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'



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