The Core Middleware Infrastructure Programme

3. The Core Middleware Infrastructure Programme Terry Morrow JISC Consultant

5. Infrastructure Programme • Aim - establish a working UK Shibboleth infrastructure • Government Comprehensive Spending Review funding • Additional funding to JISC’s main annual budget • Approx £3.4m from Apr 2004 to Mar 2006 • Main work areas: • Making Data Centre services (MIMAS and EDINA) Shibboleth compliant • Creating Athens/Shibboleth gateways • Funding for organisations willing to be early Shibboleth adopters • Creating a service to assist the early adopters • Establishing a national UK federation • Liaising with suppliers: publishers, subscription agents etc

6. ShiMMeR Progress Report • Project ShiMMeR – Shibbolising MIMAS Resources • http://www.mimas.ac.uk/shibboleth/ • Services already Shibbolised: • Landmap: satellite image and digital elevation data for the British Isles • Zetoc Alert: e-mail alerts for Zetoc • Zetoc Search: British Library Electronic Table of Contents • Hairdressing Training • Target created; awaiting 3rd party software supplier to enable completion of separate development environment • NESLi2: Will commence in Jan 2006 • Census and ESDS • Working with UKDA SAFARI project

7. ShiMMeR Progress Report (cont.) • JSTOR • JSTOR’s pilot server currently not operational; awaiting news from JSTOR • CrossFire • Elsevier have agreed to work with MIMAS on implementation (Client/Server application) • Web of Knowledge • Discussions with Thomson; will use Athens/Shibb gateway in short term • Athens/Shibboleth Gateway Testing • Successful test (eventually), but took 3 months and raised several issues

8. SDSS Progress Report • SDSS – Shibboleth Development Support Service • URL? • More on SDSS tomorrow (Sandy Shaw) • Converted services • BIOSIS • Education Media Online • Converted, but awaiting non-Shibboleth changes before deployment • CAB Abstracts • In progress • Digimap (at beta testing stage) • To come: • Agcensus; Inspec; Statistical accounts; UKBORDERS

9. Athens Gateways • JISC has funded Athens to create two gateways • Enable Shibboleth/Athens interoperability • Gateway 1 • Shibboleth Identity Provider - IdP (Origin) > Athens Service Provider – SP (Target) • In production now • Gateway 2 • Athens IdP > Shibboleth SP • Available for testing now • Production version by end 2005 • Federation membership issues – cover tomorrow

10. Early Adopters • Early Adopter Programme runs from March 2005 – December 2006 • Institutional Adopters (introducing Shibboleth at a university, FE college etc) • 12 projects from first call • 7 projects approved so far from second call (two more under review) • Funding up to £50,000 available per institution • Distributed E-learning Regional Pilot projects • 9 of the projects funded to add Shibboleth capability • Up to £40,000 available

11. Early Adopters • 12 Institutional early adopter projects funded: • ShibboLEAP (consortium of 6 London University colleges plus LSE) • Leeds (GILEAD) • Nottingham (UNISA) • Nottingham Trent (East Midlands deployment) • UK Data Archive (SAFARI) • Newcastle (SAPIR) • Bristol (Metaleth) • Liverpool (LSIP) • Cardiff (ASMIMA) • Exeter (Project SWISh) • St George’s Hospital Med Sch (ADAMS) • Liverpool (Cheshire Project)

12. E-Learning Early Adopters • The following are including Shibboleth in their e-learning pilot projects: • University of Newcastle (EPICS) • University of Central England • University of Nottingham (RIPPLL) • Liverpool John Moores University • University of Staffordshire • Birkbeck, University of London (L4ALL) • University of Wolverhampton • University College Worcester • University of Essex (EERN) (Chimera)

13. Examples of Early Adopter Projects • Leeds University – GILEAD • Creating a Shibboleth IdP based on AthensIM for access to Nathan Bodington VLE • Eliminate requirement is issue Athens accounts by using Athens gateway • Nottingham University – UNISA • Deploying Eduserv implementation of Shibboleth IdP • Had hoped to register all new students this September with only local identities • Bristol University – Metaleth • Implement Shibboleth • Integrate with Ex Libris’s Metalib & SFX link server • UK Data Archive – SAFARI • Access control to a wide range of social science survey data • Embedding in one-stop registration service

15. More Examples • Cardiff University – ASMIMA • Implement Shibboleth IdP • Move from 10,000 Athens accounts to using local identifiers via Shibboleth • Investigating using Shibboleth to control access to National Health Service resources • Exeter University – SWISh • Implement Shibboleth IdP • Implement a pilot service with a small number of users • Expand service • Investigate using with university portal, VLE, Library management service • Newcastle University – SAPIR • Replacement of Athens with Shibboleth • Configuration of online Reading List Management; Ex Libris’s Metalib • Test Environment for Aleph Library Management System

17. ShibboLEAP • Consortium of 6, led by LSE: • Royal Holloway, SOAS, KCL, UCL, Birkbeck, Imperial • Members of the SHERPA-LEAP consortium • SHERPA = Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation & Access (Nottingham) • LEAP = London E-prints Access Project • Aims: • Establish general purpose Shibboleth origins at each college. • Integrate the ePrints.org server making it a target

19. Second Round Early Adopters • SERAPIS – Shibboleth-Enabled Repository Access, Preservation & Ingest Study (AHDS) • Implement Shibb-based registration system • Investigate use of Shibboleth for accession/ingest/management of digital resources • Investigate use of Shibboleth for distributed access in grid-computing environment • SUR-PAS – Shibboleth User Recognition for Plagiarism Advisory Service • Make PAS a Shibboleth SP • Investigate use of appropriate attributes to enable automated sign-up of users • SHORE – Shibboleth-enabling Online Resources (UoW - Swansea) • Implement IdP based on AthensIM • Explore the use of iChain as an authentication/SSO interface • Configure Blackboard as a Shibb SP

20. Second Round Early Adopters (cont) • FEAR (Further Education Access to Resources) – Reid Kerr College • Create Shibb IdP authenticating against Active Directory • Shibbolising college’s document management system • KUSP – Kent University Shibbolized Portal • Build a Shibbolized student portal based on uPortal with SSO for WebCT • ShEILAB – Shibboleth Extended Implementation for eLearning at Bolton • Created Univ of Bolton Shibboleth SP service • Enable Liverpool authenticated students to access Bolton resources • Wakefield College • Adoption of Shibboleth as standard external resource access management solution

21. Middleware Assisted Take-Up Service (MATU) • Dedicated support service for early adopters • Scoping future requirements for institutions adopting Shibboleth • Support services include: • Comprehensive website • Documentation • Help desk • Onsite support • Training events • Links to, and information about, software See: http://www.matu.ac.uk

22. Commercial Service Providers • Increasing interest from commercial suppliers • Elsevier most active – ScienceDirect service in production • Consulting with JISC on joining UK Federation • Recent approach by Ovid (inc SilverPlatter) • EBSCO another commercial “early adopter” • JISC Collections Team will specify Shibboleth in new contracts • Supplier mailing within the next month • Supplier briefing event scheduled for mid-March 2006 • Internet2 will attend • International liaison an important issue

23. Challenges • Suppliers need to be persuaded to adopt the technology • May be “pushing at open doors” • Some (eg Elsevier, JSTOR) taking the initiative • Cultural, organisational change • Shifting functions from libraries to computing services • Persuading institutions to move from Athens to Shibboleth • resistance to change • short term cost for long term gain • Early adopter experiences will encourage other institutions • Educating the community on the advantages of a Shibboleth regime • examples: more flexible subscription models; fine control of courseware access