August 25, 2009

Purdue's InCommon participation to assist with information sharing, collaboration

Purdue recently became a member of the InCommon Federation, which manages federated authentication services to higher education institutions and their sponsored partners.

InCommon participants are able to access resources made available by other InCommon participants using their local campus login credentials. All participants in the federation, like Purdue, use a common set of policies and practices to exchange information about their users and resources in order to enable collaboration.

InCommon members make certain types of resources available to the constituents of other members in the federation. For example, a student, faculty or staff member at Purdue who wishes to use another participating university's services can do so by logging in using their Purdue career account and password. Because both universities are members of the InCommon Federation, there is no need for a new account or password.

Rob Stanfield, director of Purdue's Identity and Access Management Office, is excited about Purdue's participation in the InCommon Federation.

"Participation in the InCommon Federation has many benefits for Purdue students, faculty, and staff," Stanfield said. "Among those benefits, users no longer have to manage different accounts and passwords in order to access resources at other institutions, which leads to increased convenience and security."

Stanfield also notes the collaborative benefits available through InCommon use.

"The underlying technology will enable new ways to share information and collaborate with others outside of Purdue," he said.

One example is use of Committee on Insitutional Cooperation (CIC) resources. The CIC is a consortium of the Big Ten universities plus the University of Chicago that shares expertise, leverages campus resources, and collaborates on programs.

Purdue has many employees who are members of different CIC working groups. Through the use of the InCommon Federation, Purdue members now are able to log into CIC resources using their Purdue career account credentials, rather than the names and passwords assigned to them by the CIC.

To learn more about the InCommon Federation, visit www.incommonfederation.org

To learn more about the InCommon Federation implementation at Purdue, contact iamo@purdue.edu or visit www.purdue.edu/securepurdue/services/iamo.cfm