Mike Jones: self-issued

New versions of three Information Card documents are now available:

• Identity Selector Interoperability Profile V1.0 by Arun Nanda, which provides normative specifications of the protocol elements and data interchange formats employed by Identity Selectors and other interoperable Information Card components,
• An Implementer’s Guide to the Identity Selector Interoperability Profile V1.0, co-authored by Microsoft and Ping Identity, which provides informative advice and commentary on how to use these specifications when building interoperable Information Card software, and
• A Guide to Using the Identity Selector Interoperability Profile V1.0 within Web Applications and Browsers by yours truly, which provides informative advice and commentary on how these specifications are used by Web sites that accept Information Cards and by Web browsers when communicating with these sites.

These documents are intended for people building software that plays any of the roles in the Information Card ecosystem: Identity Providers to issue cards, Relying Parties to accept cards, and Identity Selectors to put the person in control by enabling them to employ Information Cards when and where they choose. They include the specifications necessary to move Information Cards from one Identity Selector implementation to another, enabling card portability. And they’re also for those of you who just want to look under the hood and understand how it all works…

Along with these updated documents also comes updated licensing. We recently completed the technical and legal review of the normative specifications that enabled us to bring them under Microsoft’s Open Specification Promise. While this had been in the queue since the beginning, sometimes good things take time and come in stages. Once we had a complete, highly reviewed (and community reviewed) version of the interoperability specifications, that enabled us to complete this licensing work as well.

Thanks to all of you who reviewed earlier versions of these docs and especially those of you who built software based upon them. These documents greatly benefited from the substantial community feedback we received.

A footnote for those of you who have used earlier drafts of these documents… The “Identity Selector Interoperability Profile V1.0” was formerly known as “A Technical Reference to the Information Card Profile V1.0”; “An Implementer’s Guide to the Identity Selector Interoperability Profile V1.0” was formerly known as “A Guide to Interoperating with the Information Card Profile V1.0”; “A Guide to Using the Identity Selector Interoperability Profile V1.0 within Web Applications and Browsers” was formerly known as “A Guide to Supporting Information Cards within Web Applications and Browsers as of the Information Card Profile V1.0”.

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