Higgins project

Higgins is an open source framework that enables users and other systems to integrate identity, profile, and relationship information across multiple heterogeneous systems. Higgins unifies all identity interactions (regardless of protocol/format) under a common user interface metaphor called i-cards. Higgins enables developers to write to a common API for Identity management, rather than needing to support multiple identity management systems individually. Software applications written to Higgins will allow people to store their digital identities and profile information in places of their choice and to share the stored information with companies and other parties in a controlled fashion.

History

The initial code for the Higgins Project was written by Paul Trevithick in the summer of 2003. In 2004 the effort became part of SocialPhysics.org, a collaboration between Paul and Mary Ruddy, of Parity Communications, Inc., and John Clippinger, a senior fellow at the Berkman Center of the Harvard Law School. Higgins, under the original name Eclipse trust framework, was accepted into the Eclipse Foundation in early 2005. Mary and Paul are the project co-leads. IBM and Novell's participation in the project was announced in early 2006. Higgins has received technology contributions from IBM and Novell, Oracle, Computer Associates, Serena, Google, as well as from several other firms and individuals. The project released version 1.0 in February 2008 (see [http://www.eclipse.org/org/press-release/20080221_higgins.php press release] ).

cope

#Provide a consistent user experience based on i-cards for the management and release of identity data. This is needed in order to have a trusted mechanism for authentication and other interactions that is less vulnerable to phishing and other attacks and that works for a wide variety of users and systems.
#Empower users with more convenience and control over personal information distributed across external information silos. Higgins will enable users to have a single point of control over multiple identities, preferences and relationships. The lack of a trusted infrastructure that allows people to selectively share information on the web while protecting their privacy is limiting the growth and use of the Internet. Working in partnership with development organizations and academic research groups, the Higgins Project is creating a key part of the open source infrastructure required for an open, accountable, socially-searchable web while ensuring privacy and personal control over identity information.
#Provide an API and data model for the virtual integration and federation of identity and security information from a wide variety of sources. Although there has always been the hope of creating a single universal identity system, the reality is that we will live in a heterogeneous, multi-protocol, world for a long time. Rather than introduce yet another new system or protocol, Higgins defines several kinds of provider plug-ins that allow developers to create adapters to legacy systems, protocols, and security token types. This means application developers will not be forced to learn the intricacies of each system and/or protocol. Higgins offers a common API/framework, provides sample services, and encourages developers to create provider plug-ins for existing and new systems.
#Provide plug-in adapters to enable existing data sources including directories, communications systems, collaboration systems and databases each using differing protocols and schemas to be integrated into the framework. To encourage the development of plug-in adaptors to common systems, the Higgins project is creating a set of example plug-ins. The project welcomes the participation of organizations and individual developers to create plug-ins for their software packages, services, or repositories.
#Provide a social relationship data integration framework that enables these relationships to be persistent and reusable across application boundaries. Higgins enables individuals to organize relationships into a set of distinct social contexts within which a person may express different personas and roles. The existence of common identity and social relationship framework makes possible new kinds of applications that work on behalf of a user to manage their own profiles, relationships, and reputation across their various personal and professional groups, teams, and other organizational affiliations while preserving their privacy. These applications could, for example, enable a user or a workgroup to discover new groups through shared affinities; find new team members based on reputation and background; sort, filter and visualize all their social networks; and exchange data with interested parties far more easily than is possible today.

References

* [http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/19280.wss IBM press release on Higgins]
* [http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2151060/ibm-backs-open-source "IBM/Novell unveil rival to Microsoft Infocard"]
* [http://sp.typepad.com/blog/2006/02/higgins_and_mic.html Clarification on Higgins' relationship with Microsoft InfoCard]
* Windows CardSpace (formerly code-named InfoCard)
* I-card

External links

* http://higgins-project.org -- Higgins project home