JISC

Definition and Brief

The PERSEUS (Portal-Enabled Resources via Shibbolized End-User Security) project was funded under the Core Middleware: Technology Development Programme. The primary intention of the project was to "... [address] the key challenge of Shibboleth-based access management to information resources via an institutional portal, using the uPortal Open Source portal toolkit". The project proposed to deliver a "generalised campus architecture for adoption by FE and HE institutions, supported by documentation at conceptual and technical levels, and reusable software components available as Open Source". The project is now completed and met most of its targets.

PERSEUS builds on a strong background of core middleware development work at LSE, drawing from several previous JISC-funded projects, such as ANGEL and Secure, and complimenting the ShibboLEAP early adopter project. The significant experience of the team at LSE has made them a focus for requests for speakers, advice and support and as such the PERSEUS project contained a larger than normal national and international dissemination focus. Details of all LSE projects in this area LSE is currently working on the Identity Project (surveying institutional requirements for Identity Management) and has recently been awarded JISC funding for a new project, called FLAME (installing a production-scale access management architecture at LSE) to serve as an example for other institutions).

Because of LSE’s active involvement in the UK and international access management developments and the PERSEUS extensive dissemination efforts, the LSE team was given a one-year extension to the PERSEUS project. PERSEUS was extended for a period of one year (October 2006 – September 2007) as a project within the Access Management Transition Programme. The PERSEUS extension project aimed to capture and utilise its dissemination and implementation expertise for the benefit of the HEI and FEI communities. The PERSEUS team has worked closely with the JISC Programme Management to scope and embed both assisted take-up and outreach plans to support the work of the programme and the transition towards federated access management within the UK.

The PERSEUS project has now been extended for another year. The new extension is for a period of one year (October 2007 – September 2008), under the same conditions as the original project extension. The aim of the new project extension is to continue supporting the JISC Access Management Transition Programme. The period between October 2007 and July 2008 (the end of JISC’s funding of Athens) is critical for the success of the Programme, as it aims to achieve a significant institutional uptake of federated access management by the end of that period. The new PERSEUS extension project will provide valuable assistance during this crucial time.

Aims, Objectives and Scope

Aims

The aim of this project is to support the embedding of operational plans for assisted take-up and outreach for the Access Management Transition Programme (that the first PERSEUS extension project helped to scope) within the JISC Community.

Objectives

The specific objectives are:

• To support the JISC Programme Manager and Outreach Coordinators in embedding operational plans for assisted take-up and outreach within the community over the period October 2007 – September 2008.
• To provide expert advice to the Programme as ‘live’ early adopters of federated access management through trialling assisted take-up and outreach plans within LSE throughout the project.
• To embed the experience of the LSE team within the community through reviewing, monitoring and shaping the assisted take-up and outreach materials over the lifetime of the project.

Scope

As before, the new PERSEUS extension project will be managed by John Paschoud (0.15 FTE), with Masha Garibyan (1.0 FTE) as a full-time Project Officer. The project will work closely with the Access Management team at the JISC Executive, with input from the JISC Services Director (John Robinson), the Programme Manager (Nicole Harris) and the two Outreach Coordinators. The project will run for one year, beginning in October 2007 and completing in September 2008.

Project Tasks

The PERSEUS project is primarily responsible for Workpackage 16 in the high-level JISC Programme Plan for the Access Management Transition Programme. Work under this project will also directly contribute to the Assisted Take-Up (AMTP-PID-003) and Programme Management (AMTP-PID-005) projects, which are lead by the JISC Executive. The new extension project will continue working on the project tasks set out in the original PERSEUS extension PID:

The high-level workplan for the Programme is attached as Annex A to give context to the workpackage and tasks of the PERSEUS extension project and show the dependencies with the Assisted Take-Up and Outreach projects.

Project Success Criteria

The project will be measured and evaluated by the following success criteria:

• Significant uptake of federated access management amongst UK HEIs, FEIs and service providers by July 2008
• Feedback from events through evaluation forms
• Feedback from projects at the point of joining the UK Access Management Federation via questionnaire

Project Methodology

The first project extension was broken into two phases: phase one ran from October 2006 – December 2006 and phase two ran from January 2007 – September 2007.

The focus of phase one was to develop and review documents and required close liaison with the JISC Programme Manager. A timetable of regular meetings (virtual and physical) was established at a project kick-off meeting held in October 2006. To enable close working between the PERSEUS project and the JISC Executive, the following communication tools were established:

• A team mailing list: jisc-access-management@jiscmail.ac.uk.
• A shared file space.
• Conference call facilities booked via the JISC BT conferencing service.

The Access Management Transition Programme is being run according to MSP guidelines, and the deliverables from the PERSEUS extension project conform to these guidelines. This was particularly relevant to the major outputs from phase one of the project (PID-003 and PID-005 for the Programme).

The final major deliverable of phase one of the project was to support the induction of the Outreach Coordinator posts for the Programme. The PERSEUS extension project provided an ideal resource for the new members of staff, allowing questions to be answered by experts outside of the line-management chain and permitting a mentoring approach.

The methodology for phase two of the Programme was defined by phase one and the development of the PIDs to support assisted take-up and outreach work. The major focus for the PERSEUS extension project during that time has been support for the institutional training programme and contributions to the assisted take-up website. The PERSEUS extension project has been working closely with JISC to ensure constant and consistent monitoring of the activities rolled-out to the community during this time, and to ensure that stakeholder requirements are responded to in the most appropriate way.

The project team has been drawing on its own experiences of an early adopter and particularly the internal project ‘Shibboleth at LSE’ to provide best practice guidelines for institutions adopting federated access management. LSE is one of the earliest adopters of federated access management in the UK. After an extensive testing programme, LSE is currently in the process of rolling out Shibboleth as a live service to provide federated access to LSE library e-resources, using a combination of direct Shibboleth access and the Shibboleth – Athens Gateway.

As part of the testing programme, the PERSEUS team became involved in regular publisher liaison activities. The team has been drawing on its experience with service provider liaison to date and has continued contributing to UK and international publisher liaison dialogues.

The new project extension will continue work described above, supporting the implementation of assisted take-up and outreach work of the Transition Programme.

In addition, the LSE has recently received JISC funding for another project (under the Institutional Exemplars strand) that will bring direct benefits to the Transition Programme. The aim of the project FLAME (November 2007 to March 2009) is to install a production-scale service for institutional Devolved Authority Management and Attribute Release Policy control, and a facility for ad-hoc Virtual Organisation Management.  These services will be supported by an Enterprise Directory (being implemented by LSE independently of this project) and be integrated with a number of key target applications (including VLE and Institutional Repository). Experience gained by FLAME will be able to inform advice that the Outreach Team can offer to later adopters of FAM technology, who will be encountering issues raised by more sophisticated institutional use of tools for Devolved Authority and Virtual Organisation Management.