Liberty Alliance not very allied over Microsoft

NEWS On the day the Liberty Alliance released its first set of technical specifications it also issued conflicting views on whether Microsoft's presence within the organisation will help or hinder future developments. Microsoft's decision not to join the Alliance has been a bone of contention since the outset.
In October of last year the Liberty Alliance was formed to create an open view of web services and has always argued that any company taking sole control of a centralised authentication system on the web was bad for the user community. Instead the organisation, which was originally driven by Sun, opted for a federated model where numerous companies individually host related customer data. These companies then link to one another via approved standards. Microsoft has so far refused to become a member of the Alliance. But yesterday, as the Liberty Alliance unveiled its first phase of technical specifications, two of its most prominent members offered conflicting opinions on just how worthy Microsoft's contribution might be. Timo Skyytta, Nokia representative and chairman of the Liberty Alliance architecture group, said Microsoft's expertise would make a laudable contribution to the organisation's ongoing work. Skytta said: "It would help with the development of specifications for sure. Microsoft has a lot of experience having developed the whole .Net framework." However, Nokia's view is at odds with those held by Professor Michael Walker, group research and development director of Vodafone and a member of the management board of the Liberty Alliance. He said: "If Microsoft were to join it wouldn't have an impact on the speed or quality of the development of the next phase of technical specifications. The combined expertise of the companies behind the Liberty Alliance is just as good as Microsoft's." The first phase of specifications covers the authentication process, such as handling usernames and passwords across Liberty Alliance membership. The next phase, which is set to be released at the beginning of 2003, will deal with standards for the authorisation of information such as credit card numbers.