Shibboleth and Athens - descending into middle earth?
This is a post for the purists! Shibboleth is the open standard for identity and access management. It promioses Single Sign-On to resources, and data security. If you want to know how it works, CLICK HERE. Athens on the other hand is the old system, familiar to Open University and HE students. There seems to be a 'bun-fight' going on with press releases from both providers, Eduserv and JISC about funding gateways between the two systems as part of the transition.
The fight is over the what seems to be a higher price being asked by Eduserv to set up the gateways than JISC were willing to pay. Mind you, there is the commercial position of asking an outgoing company to provide facilites to an incoming company for a low cost!
What does this mean for the average Joe in working in education? Not a lot unless you work in HE, and not at all if you work in a school. Its just interesting.