Industry trade group The Liberty Alliance Project is
adding computer chip maker Intel to its list of
members.
Intel will be added to the management board for the group, which
develops and promotes open standards management of user identities
on computer networks.
The management board is the highest level in the Liberty
Alliance organisation and is responsible for overall governance of
the group, including legal and financial operations. Management
board members also get final voting authority for all
Liberty-sponsored specifications.
Intel's decision to join the group signals wide market support
for Liberty's approach to federated identity.
"It's something we're pleased to see. We regard it as a good
thing for the health of the alliance to attract leaders in their
space, and Intel is certainly that," said Michael Barrett,
president of the Liberty Alliance.
Barrett acknowledged that the prospect of a hardware company
like Intel joining a software standards group might strike some as
odd. However, Intel employs many software developers who write code
that ends up in firmware and on silicon and uses web services
internally, he said.
"Its entirely reasonable for a hardware manufacturer to look at
[the Liberty Alliance] protocols to enable their business."
Intel will be represented on the Liberty Alliance Management
Board by George Goodman, director of system software for Intel's
corporate technology group.
Other management board members include VeriSign, Sun
Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.
Paul Roberts writes for IDG News Service
