Shibboleth is a project of the Internet2 Middleware Initiative (http://middleware.internet2.edu), which provides an architecture and open-source implementation for federated identity-based authentication and authorization infrastructure. Federations may be built from groups, organisations, or projects who agree on common security policies and practices. Using the SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) and Shibboleth (http://www.e-taxonomy.eu) protocols allow for cross-domain single sign-on and remove the need for content providers to maintain usernames and passwords.

This computer demonstration shows the current single sign-on approach used for the federation of several taxonomic data and service providers within the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT; http://www.e-taxonomy.eu). Currently, our approach implements a central Shibboleth Identity Provider using an extended metadata schema focusing on taxonomy particularly. Relying upon the Shibboleth security components (http://dev.e-taxonomy.eu/wiki/SecurityComponents), multiple applications (i.e., “service providers” in Shibboleth terms) such as Drupal, Subversion, and TRAC can be adapted to specific user preferences as well as to meet security concerns of service providers.

The scenario is subjected to enlargement by further applications or services and is applicable to other TDWG groups or institutions as well. Finally, it has the potential to become the security framework building up a common TDWG federation in the near future.

This computer demonstration is presented in conjunction with the talk "Shibboleth, a potential security framework for the TDWG architecture”.