Evaluating trends
We periodically sift through these entries to see how relevant they might be for SWITCH, and gauge their current state of development. In an internal crowdsourcing process, we tap into the collective expertise of everyone involved in the topic at hand, and get a consolidated snapshot. For any issues deemed controversial, we discuss them beforehand and then reassess; anything that isn’t all that relevant is discarded, and issues of moderate relevance set aside for the next periodic review. We propose measures for any issues we consider particularly relevant.
While the trend radar doesn’t tell us specifically what’s going to happen, it does open our eyes to the issues that deserve our attention. And what might they be?
Exploiting trends
The SWITCH edu-ID roadmap considers technical trends, such as protocol extensions. The main focal point here is enhancing the service to make it fit for the future.
When it comes to trends in the political and regulatory environment, SWITCH has been involved in the development of the E-ID law in a variety of ways – through consulting, presentation to the National Council’s Legal Commission and, since then, our participation in a Federal Office of Justice monitoring group (link to materials through the Identity Blog). The interim conclusion is that we recognise substantial benefits in the availability of state-certified user data, but at the same time we see little benefit in linking this with a universal login.
As for the identity services of other organisations that we’re keeping a watchful eye on, we can offer clear statements on two cases: Microsoft’s cloud products are highly significant for the world of academia, and we believe there is considerable added value in linking them with the SWITCH edu-ID. And for Edulog, the identity solution for primary schools that’s currently being set up, SWITCH is focusing on interoperability with the SWITCH edu-ID and is therefore in close contact with the Edulog operator, educa.ch.
Looking towards the future
New protocols and products are bringing a password-free future closer than ever and will allow users to further consolidate their electronic identities and manage them independently. We see the SWITCH edu-ID as being a key enabler in both these areas. As always, you can find more about this on our Identity Blog.
