Higgins is an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

project dedicated to giving individuals more control over their personal identity, profile and social network data. The project is organized into three main areas: #Active Clients - An active client integrates with a browser and runs on a computer or mobile device. #* Higgins 1.X: the active client supports the OASIS IMI protocol and performs the functions of an Information Card ''selector''. #* Higgins 2.0: the plan is to move beyond ''selector'' functionality to add support for managing passwords and Higgins relationship cards, as well other protocols such as

OpenID OpenID is an open standard and decentralized authentication protocol promoted by the non-profit OpenID Foundation. It allows users to be authenticated by co-operating sites (known as relying parties, or RP) using a third-party identity provider ...

. It also becomes a client for the Personal Data Store (see below) and thereby provides a kind of dashboard for personal information and a place to manage "permissioning"—deciding who gets access to what slice of the user's data. #Personal Data Store (PDS) is a new work area under development for Higgins 2.0. A PDS stores local personal data, controls access to remotely hosted personal data, synchronizes personal data to other devices and computers, accessed directly or via a PDS client it allows the user to share selected aspects of their information with people and organizations that they trust. #Identity Services - Code for (i) an IMI and SAML compatible Identity Provider and (ii) enabling websites to be IMI and OpenID compatible.

History

The initial code for the Higgins Project was written by

Paul Trevithick Paul Byers Trevithick (born 1959) is currently a client partner and senior director at EPAM, advisor to early-stage startups, technologist, privacy advocate, and entrepreneur. Education He grew up in Ottawa, Canada, attended MIT, and received a ...

in the summer of 2003. In 2004 the effort became part o
SocialPhysics.org
a collaboration between Paul and Mary Ruddy, o
Azigo
(formerly Parity Communications, Inc.), an
Meristic
and John Clippinger, at the

Berkman Center for Internet & Society The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...

. Higgins, under its original name Eclipse Trust Framework, was accepted into the

Eclipse Foundation The Eclipse Foundation AISBL is an independent, Europe-based not-for-profit corporation that acts as a steward of the Eclipse open source software development community, with legal jurisdiction in the European Union. It is an organization suppo ...

in early 2005. Mary and Paul are the project co-leads. IBM and

Novell Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare. Under the lead ...

's participation in the project was announced in early 2006. Higgins has received technology contributions from IBM,

Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...

, CA, Serena,

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eperi GmbH
as well as from several other firms and individuals. Version 1.0 was released in February 2008. As of 2019 Eclipse Higgins is archived, meaning that it is an inactive project.

References

{{Reflist Eclipse (software) Federated identity Identity management initiative

History

See also

References