Government Computer News discusses how a federated approach makes identity management portable: Overlapping identity management systems can be as much of a pain to users — and ultimately to systems administrators — as multiple passwords. Agencies that maintain multiple user repositories or whose processes cross more than one security domain should consider implementing federated identity management to reduce administrative overhead and costs while increasing security and simplifying the user’s experience.

OASIS has formed a new technical committee to make it easier to validate the trustworthiness of businesses, projects, and people working and socializing in electronic communities. The new OASIS Open Reputation Management Systems (ORMS) Technical Committee will define common data formats for consistently and reliably representing reputation scores.

According to recent media reports, the average American spends about 160 hours online each year. For many working professionals, this number skyrockets into the thousands of hours. A Pew Internet and American Life Project survey conducted in early 2007 reports that nearly half of all internet users have searched for information about themselves while online, more than doubling the figure reported just five years ago.

The 7th annual NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) IDtrust Workshop, co-sponsored by the OASIS IDtrust Member Section (MS) was a great success. Over 170 attendees participated from various industries and academia worldwide. The event generated an enthusiastic response from attendees and stimulated a great deal of 'hallway' conversation.