I've blogged before on OpenSSO Extensions - useful modules that do not fit into the OpenSSO 'core'. Among the various categories of extension are 'authentication modules' - one of the most common customizations for OpenSSO and Access Manager . An authentication module supports a particular mechanism for collecting and verifying a user's credentials - common mechanisms that are supported out-of-the-box include username/password against LDAP, client certificates (encompassing browser certs and smartcards)

It's been a while since Build 4 of OpenSSO , as we work towards an early access (EA) build of Sun Federated Access Manager 8.0, OpenSSO's commercial 'twin'. Our plan designates OpenSSO build 5 as the FAM 8.0 EA, but we still have some minor issues to iron out before we're ready for EA, hence the release of OpenSSO 1.0 Build 4.5 . Here are some of the new features in Build 4.5, compared to Build 4: The Fedlet - quick and easy Federation for SP's, where you'd rather (slightly) modify your web app than

A few days ago, the good people at JavaPolis ( which now seems to be called Javoxx ) posted the video for my OpenSSO session from JavaPolis 07 at Parleys.com . Go take a look and see how it compares with the SAML 2.0 session they posted back in February.

Kaliya wonders "if OpenID has been used for activism yet?", then, in a footnote: Sorry - I am really trying to get openID to work on this hoster (well my tech person Lucy is) there is still something not working. So if you want to comment either link to this blog post and say it on your own site or send me e-mail kaliya (at) mac (dot) com. If any of you OpenID tech folks want to see if you can help her solve the problem let me know I will put you in touch. There's really nothing I can add...

The BBC's excellent Newsnight is coming to BBC America tonight. To celebrate, here's a clip from 1997 of the wonderfully abrasive Jeremy Paxman interviewing Tory Home Secretary of the day Michael Howard , asking the same question FOURTEEN times and never getting a straight answer...

I just noticed that the video for my Javapolis '07 presentation on SAML 2.0 has gone online at Parleys.com , the BeJUG e-learning site. Watch and enjoy, and count the number of times I say "um..."

A couple of weeks ago, I posted on the challenge that James Governor of Redmonk (aka ' Monkchips ') set - "who is coolest from a Dopplr perspective- IBM or Sun?" . The idea was to see who could add the most Dopplr members over the next week - Sun or IBM. IBM, of course, have 10x the headcount that Sun have, but surely, surely, Sun are at least 10x cooler, from a Dopplr, or any other perspective...? Well, the numbers are out, and the answer is... Sun! Of course! It was a close run thing , but we pulled