At the Sun’s Identity Management Roadshow in San Francisco, last week, I met Jay Visvanathan, Sun’s Education Market Strategist for Global Education & Research. I was pleased to learn that Jay and his colleagues have taken the initiative to launch a new Sun Identity Special Interest Group (Sun ID-SIG), specifically for those involved in using Identity Management in the higher education market.

From the IDSIG web site: “This Special Interest group is open to higher education customers of Sun’s Identity solutions, as well as companies providing Sun identity management services to higher education. It will be a customer-driven forum providing an opportunity to exchange practical and technical knowledge and experiences with other Sun identity customers. As a member of Sun ID-SIG, you will also stay tuned to the latest news, views, and identity buzz from Sun, partners and customers.”

You can register online to join this emerging community. No fees will be charged.

Any questions can be directed to Jay Visvanathan.

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Sun Microsystems,
Higher Education

The classic matchup between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers is underway. The Celtics drew first blood as Paul Pierce came back from a knee injury to lead his team to victory.

I’m pulling for the Celtics to win, because I really want Kevin Garnett to get a ring.

It’s going to be a great series!

Technorati Tags: NBA

At the Sun Identity Management Roadshow held yesterday at the New York City Hilton, Toby Emden, Chief Security Architect for Traveler’s Insurance, gave an excellent presentation about his company’s Identity Management program, which includes deployment of Sun’s Identity Management product suite.

I was particularly impressed with one slide where Toby articulated his vision for the overall initiative. I include it here with his permission:

The Vision

“One man, One goal, One mission. One heart, One soul, just one solution. One flash of light, yeah, One God, One Vision” – Freddie Mercury/Queen

• One Directory Infrastructure to manage all entitlements
• One Provisioning Platform for all critical infrastructure directories and SOX relevant applications
• One Administration Point, where policies and separation of duties rules are defined in the context of available services
• One Identity, based on who you are instead of where you are
• One Policy Decision Point, enabling consistency and risk-based analysis in approving access requests
• One view of who is doing what, who has access to what, and who granted access to what and when

This view of unity and architectural simplicity sets a strong vision to guide the progressive implementation of Traveler’s Identity Management program. Toby’s subsequent explanation of his plan for realizing the vision through well-structured major releases and subordinate projects illustrates Travelers’ adherence to sound Identity Management implementation principles.

Thanks, Toby, for sharing your insight and granting me permission to publish this blog post.

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Sun Microsystems,
Travelers Insurance

Last week, after staying at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco, I read a Twitter message posted by a guy from Europe asking for recommendations for a hotel in San Francisco. After I responded with a brief recommendation for Intercontinenal, my colleague and fellow Twitterer Terry Gardner (@tgardner) suggested I write a review on TripAdvisor.com. So, I signed on and posted my first ever hotel review. You can visit TripAdvisor or read it here:

The Sun Microsystems Identity Management Roadshow, at which I spoke, was held at the Intercontinental Hotel on May 28, 2008. I arrived the night before and was delighted with my room on the northeast corner of the 29th floor, with a magnificent view of the city and across the bay.

An iHome clock radio on the nightstand allowed me to listen to my favorite music while charging my iPod – just like home. And it was the first hotel room where I could watch NBA Basketball in high definition on a large screen – better than home.

The bed was the most comfortable hotel bed I can remember sleeping in – it might have been better than home, except there was an empty spot where my wife should have been!

But after all this, perhaps the best parts were the soups. The soups, you ask? Yes, the soups. For dinner the night of arrival, I had tomato bisque to accompany my cobb salad. I’m not much of a food connoisseur, but is “exquisite” an appropriate word? It was very good.

The next day, the buffet lunch provided for the Roadshow participants included a mushroom soup that was just as delectable.

One more thing … the little plastic bottles of shampoo and lotion were shaped like like drops of rain (or tears). Not the reason I choose hotels, but a nice touch!

And just think, with this much fun, I also got Priority Club points.

Please be assured that I have no intentions of forsaking my day job to join William Shatner in the hotel pitch business, but I enjoyed writing about a nice place to stay.

Technorati Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Sun Microsystems,
Hotel,
Tripadvisor

Twice in the past week I have been pleasantly reminded about the enduring value of what we post to the web. Last week, I had enjoyed a delightful evening with Dazza Greenwood, who had dredged up my November, 2005, post about Core Identity and contacted me. Today, Tom Scicluna, from Canberra, Australia, contacted me regarding a post I authored in January 2006, entitled, “Seven Identity Management Implementation Risks.” It is nice to know that old information can still be timely and relevant today.

For Tom and anyone else who wishes to review the “Risks” series, here are links to each segment:

• Poor Pre-Project Preparation
• Poor Requirements Definition
• Large Initial Scope
• Inexperienced Resources
• Poor Project Methodology
• Scope Creep
• Not Using Available Support

By the way, I stumbled across the seven-figured hand on a blog by Roger von Oech. I don’t think it has anything to do with Identity Management, but I liked the picture and the creative thought Roger offered.

Tags: Identity,
Digital Identity,
Identity Management,
Identity Risks,
Project Management

Yesterday I invested a few dollars in a Creative Labs Optia AF video camera for my office and invested a bit of time connecting to Seesmic, now in alpha test. It looks to be great fun and may further collapse time and space between us. Please take a look at my video profile and let me know what you think.

My screen name is “mgd” on both Seemic and Flickr.

Technorati Tags: SocialMedia,
Seesmic