November 2005

Of course, the real reason I was in Windermere was not to photograph ducks but to present some slides on the discovery problem in Shibboleth. You can download a copy of the presentation “WAYFs and Discovery” here (1.4MB PDF).

The abstract (accidentally omitted from the meeting material) was:

The standard model of Identity Provider discovery in Shibboleth deployments is that of a federation-supplied, central discovery service called a WAYF. Although an essential backstop, this approach has significant shortcomings. We present some recent work in the area of multi-federation WAYFs, and review alternative discovery technologies (both present and future) that allow deployers to improve the user experience.

My co-author Rod Widdowson can be found here.

In Windermere this week for the Core Middleware Programme Meeting, I find this little fellow in my bath.

Alas, I was unable to take up the invitation.

It’s amazing how much fun you can have with a 50p packet of sparklers. Two each! Nearly sixty seconds of pure childhood glee in every pack!