OpenID; user-centric identity

I am one of those who discovered OpenId very late. It's a shame; I have to live with it....

OpenId is decentralized and user-centric identity framework. It seems to be easy to use and implement. The number of OpenId enabled sites (consumers) supports this claim; openiddirectory.com host list of them.

Wikipedia provides good introductions about OpenId to whom are new, like me. I also found a lot of technical details at here.

Another good news is OpenSSO provides OpenId implementation under OpenSSO Extensions project; consequently we can use OpenSSO as OpenId provider as well.

Posted at 07:19PM Apr 01, 2007 by Orhan Alkan in OpenSSO  |  Comments[0]

SAML SSO Service for Google Apps

Today, I saw an email which is part of a discussion about Google SSO services. I wonder what it is and follow the links in the message. It took me to the introductory pages on Google SSO Service based on SAML

Google offers a SAML-based SSO service that provides partner companies with full control over the authorization and authentication of hosted user accounts that can access web-based application like Gmail or Google Calendar. Google acts as the service provider while partners is acting  as identity providers.

Google supports SAML 2.0 and any commercial and open sources software supporting SAML 2.0 (e.g; openFM)  can work with it in addition to API provided by Google.

It really strike me how open standards can make life easy.

I should test Google service with OpenFM

Posted at 10:15PM Mar 27, 2007 by Orhan Alkan in OpenFM  |  Comments[0]

Using Digital Signature As Strong Authentication Method

Digital signature has been rarely known as authentication method so far. Yesterday, Turkcell announced new strong authentication service, mobile signature. Turkcell also provide as a service to big banks such as Garanti, Akbank,and Isbankasi.

Turkcell has been using Sun Java System Access Manager to provide Single-Signle On  to the subscribers using web based VAS services. Local Sun Professional Services team developed a custom authentication module for Access Manager to be integrated with mobile signature infrastructure. Consequently, the subscribers enjoys accessing VAS services using their digital signature.

Posted at 10:06AM Feb 21, 2007 by Orhan Alkan in OpenSSO  |  Comments[4]

Innovation happens elsewhere

I have just finished the book. Reading this book is real challange but very interesting.
The book is about open sources. You may think there could be nothing new in such book. You are wrong!

If you are interested in what can open source means to a organization, this book is for you. Authors look at the subject from oranizational point. You understand pretty well how open source can help a company.

The most striking idea is that main advantage of open source project for a company is innovation. In a company, you have limited resources. If you share your projects with others, thousands of minds works for you. Of course, there are critical success factors in a open sources project. The book provides you a lot tips and tricks about how to prepare an environement fostering innovtion and building comminuty.
The boottomline is it is not easy to read, very boring , but the subject is pretty intereseting which makes the book readable

Enjoy!!!

Posted at 03:23PM Sep 15, 2006 by Orhan Alkan in Books  |  Comments[2]

OpenSSO Server Installation

I have installed OpenSSO eventually. I would like to thank Dennis Seah for his help. There are a few tricks you have to pay attention for s successful installation. In deed, It take 5 minutes to install.

First trick is username. It is amAdmin -be careful it is case sensitive! Second  is for the people who are familiar with Access Manager; the data store is file system not Sun directory. Do not look for directory configuration. Dennis told me the directory support will be available  soon. Central repository is crucial for fail-over and load balancing. I hope it doesn't take so long.

I have documented the steps you have to complete for a successful OpenSSO server installation. You can find it in PDF format here.

Next will be agent installation! It is a real adventure, isn't it? 

Posted at 08:34PM Sep 09, 2006 by Orhan Alkan in OpenSSO  |  Comments[5]

Documentation Problem!

Tonight, I was very decisive to install opensso on my workstation. I prepared everything and setup all components (web server, directory server, etc.). Then I started to follow the instructions. It was end of a dream. It was almost impossible to setup opensso according to the provided documentation. In addition, all documentation are belong to Access Manager 7.1 and irrelevant to opensso.

I guess, our friends in the engineering were in rush, under time pressure and couldn't prepare documentation properly. It can happen. I believe they will fixed in the next days. I am ready to help as one more hand.

It seems that I have to delay my installation plan a few days....

Posted at 09:00PM Sep 07, 2006 by Orhan Alkan in OpenSSO  |  Comments[5]

OpenSSO Hacks

Fulup Ar Foll has told me OpenSSO went live and asked me why I did not contribute to the project? I have been working on Access Manager and it was right question in the right time. So I decided to contribute the project. First thing I did is to establish this blog to share my experience with you effectively.

My objectives are regarding OpenSSO;

• Discovering and elaborating OpenSSO features
• Hacking OpenSSO and sharing my experience trough quick "how to" documents so that I want to help accelerating the learn curve of developers who are interested in OpenSSO
• Discovering technical/business expansion and integration possibilities with complementary technologies and sharing them trough white papers
• Enjoy playing with OpenSSO and fun!
  

I will start with installation of OpenSSO

Posted at 09:08PM Sep 02, 2006 by Orhan Alkan in OpenSSO  |  Comments[0]