White Papers

//White Papers
White Papers 2018-04-03T10:13:25+00:00

Open Identity Exchange (OIX) White Papers focus on current issues and opportunities in emerging identity markets. OIX white papers are driven by the needs of the members but the goal of each white paper is that they stand on their own to deliver value to the identity ecosystem as whole.

Below is a subset of the OIX White Paper collection that focuses on trust frameworks, trusted identity systems, attribute exchanges and registries.

Please go here for the complete collection of OIX White Papers.

Attribute Exchange Networks: New Infrastructure for Digital Business
This white paper compliments the OIX Attribute Exchange (AXN) Trust Framework Specification that was completed and accepted in July 2013. The AXN Specification is a comprehensive master plan for implementing identity as a service infrastructure for the real time sharing of precise authority information across all digital business settings. This white paper summarizes the findings of the AXN Specification by providing a consolidated approach to creating and deploying an AXN with considerations such as monetization models.
Author: Stephen Wilson, Lockstep Consulting
Published: November 2016
The Value of OIXnet: A New Registry for Online Trust
Today as never before, we have access to a wealth of digital attributes and sensor data that we control. What is missing, however, is the ability to easily manage these diverse silos of data.  Identity and service providers could create higher-value content for business applications by aggregating these data in machine- or human-readable form.  The OIXnet Registry is an early step in producing a registry service, a public database for Identity Providers (IdPs) to be registered, published and searched, and where they can make known to users the characteristics of the attributes they manage. It is then at the discretion of the identity owners to aggregate or disaggregate their personal data.
Author: Hal Warren
Published: February 2015
The Vocabulary of Identity Systems Liability
Fear of liability is one of the most significant impediments to participation in the emerging identity market. Yet the term “liability” is often misapplied, and the risk of liability is often misunderstood. This OIX White Paper Series is designed to demystify liability, and assist in liability risk analysis. As the first step in that process, this paper seeks to explain the concept of liability, and to develop a common understanding of what it means for participants in an identity system to incur liability. The goal is to introduce identity system experts to the fundamentals of legal liability, while introducing the context of a federated identity system to legal counsel.
Authors: Thomas J. Smedinghoff, Mark Deem and Sam Eckland
Published: June 2014
OIX Attribute Exchange (AX) Trust Framework Specification
The intent of the OIX Attribute Exchange (AX) Trust Framework specification is to enable what some call the “Identity Information Exchange Ecosystem.” This is an ecosystem or marketplace that is interoperable, secure, and allows users to share reliable identity information with service providers who wish to utilize them. The objective is to provide a starting point from which a Community of Interest (COI) can organize participation from their constituency to customize and implement the business, legal, technical, privacy, certification and audit components of their AX Trust Framework specification.
Author: Open Identity Exchange
Published: July 2013
The Open Identity Trust Framework (OITF) Model
This paper proposes the Open Identity Trust Framework (OITF) model as a way to achieve the confidence needed to support the exchanges of identity information. The goal is to define a trust framework that reduces barriers and promotes trust so that individuals can conduct trusted transactions. Section II introduces the basic roles and relationships in the model. Section III describes implementation mechanisms. Section IV provides examples to illustrate the types of exchange relationships that the OITF model can facilitate. Section V defines a set of “Principles of Openness” that are built into the OITF model to establish a base level of transparency, accountability, and open competition. Lastly, because some key questions remain unresolved, Section VI highlights tough issues and calls for the involvement of a broad representation of stakeholders to grapple with these challenges and craft appropriate approaches forward.
Authors: Mary Rundle – Microsoft, Eve Maler – PayPal, Tony Nadalin – Microsoft, Drummond Reed – Information Cards, Don Thibeau – OpenID Foundation
Published: March 2010

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