i-names are global identifiers that allow you to login to different web sites with one username and password. More importantly, they allow you to share personal profile data across different web sites, giving you full control over who gets accessed to your data and the conditions for using it.    (LZ)

i-names are part of the IdentityCommons project and use the OASIS XRI standard. PurpleWiki v0.93 was the first Wiki to support i-names, which BlueOxenAssociates demonstrated car gps at the 2003 PlaNetwork Conference in San Francisco.    (M0)

Technical Architecture    (M1)

The three components of the i-names architecture are:    (M2)

I-brokers know three things:    (M6)

Service providers applications that allow you to login and that may want access to some of your personal data. Anyone who hosts an application that requires a username could be considered a service provider.    (MA)

i-names are resolvable addresses, similar to DNS. When an application resolves an i-name, it receives the i-broker with which that i-name is associated.    (MB)

With i-names, you never give your password to a service provider. Only your i-broker knows your password. When you attempt to login to a service provider, it figures out your i-broker, then sends you there for authentication. Once authenticated, the i-broker redirects you back to the service provider.    (MC)

Example    (MD)

 User enters "@blueoxen*eekim"
 as i-name.    (ME)
   |    +-------------------+
   +--> | PurpleWiki        | --> resolves "@blueoxen*eekim" to get
    +-> | (service provider |     i-broker, which is 2idi.  Redirects
    |   +-------------------+     to http://2idi.com/.
    |                                                  |
    |                                                  |
    |  i-broker authenticates   +-----------------+    |
    +- user.  If successful,    | 2idi (i-broker) | <--+
       redirects to PurpleWiki, +-----------------+
       which logs in the user.    (MF)

Enabling i-names in PurpleWiki    (MH)

Because i-names are very new and require some special libraries, they are turned off by default in PurpleWiki. If you want to use them, you need the following libraries (available from CPAN):    (MI)

XRI is the XRI resolver, which is where most of the trickery lies. The resolver figures out the i-broker associated with an i-name.    (ML)

XDI::SPIT (which stands for Service Provider Interface Toolkit) contains the single-sign on logic and will eventually contain the data sharing logic.    (MM)

To allow people to log in with an i-name, first uncomment "UseINames" in the wikidb/config file.    (MN)

Next, edit wikidb/templates/common/header.tt to use navbarInames.tt instead of navbar.tt. If you look in navbarInames.tt, you'll notice that there is no password field. That's because the user will be redirected to the i-broker for authentication.    (MO)

If you are a service provider that owns an organizational i-name, and you want to allow your users to register for one, uncomment and fill out the fields in wikidb/config:    (MP)

You'll get the first two values from the registry that manages your organizational i-name. Also, edit wikidb/templates/common/header.tt to use navbarInamesRegister.tt instead of navbarInames.tt.    (MT)

References    (MU)

For more information, visit IdentityCommons's web site and Wiki.    (MV)