Sun to Unveil Liberty Identity Management Tools

[R. A. Hettinga]

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB1026252135555031520,00.html


The Wall Street Journal

July 10, 2002
E-COMMERCE

Sun-Backed Body Is Set
To Unveil New Web Tools

By REBECCA BUCKMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The war over Web standards between Microsoft Corp. and rival Sun
Microsystems Inc. appears to be cooling off a bit, with both companies
moving ahead with new initiatives and, in some cases, working together to
try to make more money from e-commerce.

One big milestone will reached Monday, when a Sun-backed group called the
Liberty Alliance finally unveils new technical specifications for online
"identity management" systems. The specifications -- which have been
hammered out by Sun and about 40 other large companies, including UAL
Corp.'s United Airlines and General Motors Corp. -- can be downloaded free
from the Internet starting next week.

The new tools are important because they are the building blocks upon which
companies can build new services that allow consumers to move easily among
Web sites without having to repeatedly identify themselves with a new
password. United, for example, might use the specifications to link parts
of its Web site to those of business partners, such as another airline or a
rental-car company, said Eric Dean, United's chief information officer and
the chairman of the Liberty group. That might allow people to easily make
multiple reservations for a trip.

Microsoft is promoting its own online-identity service, called Passport,
and hasn't joined the Liberty group. Sun actually started Liberty in
response to some Microsoft moves last year to expand Passport and use it as
the basis for new businesses.

But Mr. Dean said services built on Liberty's technology could ultimately
work with Passport, and Liberty continues to talk to Microsoft about
joining the group. He is also heartened by Sun's recent decision to support
a related Web-security initiative, known as WS-Security, recently submitted
to a Web-standards body by Microsoft, International Business Machines Corp.
and VeriSign Inc.

Sun's decision to cooperate with the initiative "kind of shocked all of
us," said Rob Enderle, an analyst with Giga Information Group. He said the
continuing technology recession, which is crimping revenue at even the
biggest companies, may have contributed to Sun's decision.

A Sun spokesman said Sun is supporting WS-Security mainly because the
specification will be free for companies to license, something Sun says was
unclear when IBM and Microsoft introduced it.


-- 
-----------------
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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