An i-card is a rectangular icon displayed in the user interface of an identity selector that represents a digital identity--a set of claims about some entity (typically a person, but it could also be an organization, application, service, digital object, etc.).
The i-card metaphor is based on familiar physical identity credentials like business cards, credit cards, library cards, association cards, driver's licenses, badges, etc. However, just as computer file folders are similar to but more powerful than real-world file folders, i-cards are similar to but more powerful than real-world identification cards. The i-card metaphor is identical to the information card metaphor used in numerous identity selectors.
Generic Qualities
- I-cards are created by an entity known as a issuer .
- I-cards display the name of the issuer ( issuerName ) in a text string.
- I-cards have a text string to identify the card ( cardName ) that is initially set by the card issuer. Typically this card name is user-editable.
- I-cards may have a (GIF or JPEG) background image ( cardImage ) set by the card issuer (user-editable).
- In most i-cards the user is able to see the value of the claims.
Kinds of Cards
Just as there are many kinds of physical cards such as business cards for contact data, credit cards for payment, library cards for library access, driver's licenses for motor vehicle privileges, etc.), there are many kinds of I-Cards. They can be grouped into three broad categories:
Managed Cards
The first kind of managed card was introduced as part of Microsoft’s Windows CardSpace software in November 2006. The behavior, file format and interoperability characteristics of these kinds of managed cards are defined by Microsoft documents such as the Identity Selector Interoperability Profile (pdf) (see here for a more complete list), in combination with open standards including WS-Trust and others.
Summary of characteristics:
- Data format: an XML file containing: network endpoint of the STS, set of claim type URIs, name of the card, cardImage , issuerName , a unique cardID, etc. The XML file format is defined in the ISIP documents.
- Issuer: An external, third party token service (representing an external person or organization).
- Genesis: A managed card is generated by a Security Token Service running at an Identity Provider site and imported into the user's Identity Selector
- Claims: The list of supported claim types (claim type URIs) is defined by the issuer.
- Authority: The issuer is the sole authority for the claim values contained within the token it issues.
- Data flow: Managed cards contain a network endpoint reference to a Security Token Service (STS) that, when requested by the identity selector (using WS-Trust, etc.) generates/provides a security token containing the required claims.
- Editability: Underlying attribute data is not directly editable by the user.
- Attribute data source: Determined by the issuer, and generally managed by the issuer.
Personal Cards
The first kind of personal information cards were also introduced as part of Microsoft’s Windows CardSpace software in November 2006. Their behavior is also defined by the same documents covering the Microsoft-defined managed cards (see above).
Summary of characteristics:
- Data format an XML file containing: set of claim type URIs as well as the (user-defined) values of these claims, cardImage , a unique cardID, etc. This data format is defined in the ISIP documents.
- Issuer: The user's own identity selector. Personal cards can be described as self-issued
- Genesis: Created by the user's identity selector.
- Claims: 15 pre-defined claim types (e.g. firstname, surname, email address, etc.) are defined in the Identity Selector Interoperability Profile V1.0.
- Authority: The user's identity selector is the authority for the issued token's set of claim values.
- Data flow: On demand (e.g. as needed by a relying site), an STS local to the identity selector creates a security token with the current values.
- Editability: The claim values are directly editable by the user.
- Attribute data source: The personal card XML file contains claim values. When imported into an identity selector these data values are then managed internally by the selector.
Relationship Cards
Relationship cards are under development by the Higgins project (see http://wiki.eclipse.org/R-Card)
Summary of characteristics:
- Data format: A managed card that supports a resource-udi claim
- Supported Claims: Like all managed (or personal) cards, r-cards include a list of supported claim types (expressed as URIs) as defined by the issuer. This set defines the maximal set of claims that issuer will include in its generated security token. These claims are inherited from underlying ISIP-m-card upon which it is based and are used for the same purposes. Beyond managed cards the resource-udi "meta" claim provides a reference to a set of attributes.
- Authority: The issuer is the authority for the issued token's set of claim values (as per a normal managed or personal card).
- Editability: The values of underlying attributes (referenced by the resource-udi claim) may be editable by parties other than the issuer.
- Supported Attributes: The value of an r-card's resource-udi claim is an Entity UDI (URI) that "points to" a data entity (representing a person, organization, or other object). The set of attributes of this data entity is distinct from (though usually a superset of) the "supported claims" mentioned above.
Reliance on the Higgins Data Model
Conceptually a managed card is essentially a human-friendly "pointer" to a Token Service--a web service (e.g. a WS-Trust Security Token Service) from which security tokens can be requested. A security token is a set of attribute assertions (aka claims) about some party that is cryptographically signed by the issuer (the token service acting as the authority). An r-card, contains a second "pointer" that points to a data entity whose attribute's values (i) shared by all parties to the r-card and (ii) form the underlying attributes that are consumed by the r-card issuer's STS and provide the values of the claims that this STS makes. By including this second "pointer" on the r-card, r-card holders have the potential to access and update some subset of these underlying attributes. The card issuer maintains an access control policy to control who has what level of access.
This second pointer is an Entity UDI--a reference to an Entity object in the Higgins Context Data Model. Entity UDIs may be dereferenced and the underlying Entity's attributes accessed by using the Higgins project's Identity Attribute Service (see IdAS). Once resolved, consumers of this service can inspect, and potentially modify the attributes of the entity as well as get its schema as described in Web Ontology Language (OWL).
In addition to basic identity attribute values like strings and numbers, the data entity referred to by an r-card can have complex attribute values consisting of aggregates of basic attribute types as well as UDI links to other entities.
History of the terms "i-card" and "information card"
The term information card was introduced by Microsoft in May 2005 as a name for the visual information card metaphor to be introduced in its forthcoming Windows CardSpace software. Until early 2006, information cards were also sometimes referred to by the code-name “InfoCard”, which was not a name that was freely available for all to use. The name information card was specifically chosen as one that would be freely available for all to use, independent of any product or implementation. The name “information card” is not trademarked and is so generic as to not be trademarkable.
The term i-card was introduced at the June 21, 2006 Berkman/MIT Identity Mashup conference (see meeting notes and Drummond Reed's blog post). The intent was to define a term that was not associated with any industry TM or other IP or artifact. At the time, Microsoft had not yet finished applying the Open Specification Promise to the protocols underlying Windows CardSpace and there was also a misunderstanding that the term information card was not freely available for use by all, so to be conservative, the term i-card was introduced.
Mike Jones, of Microsoft, explained to participants of a session at IIW 2007b that Microsoft always intended the term information card to be used generically to describe all kinds of information cards and to be freely usable by all, and tried to correct the earlier misunderstanding that the term might apply only to the kinds of information cards originally defined by Microsoft. He made the case that the industry would be better served by having everyone use the common term information card, than having two terms in use with the same meaning, since there remains no legal or technical reason for different terms. In this case the term i-card would become just the short form of information card, just like e-mail has become the short form of electronic mail.
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