Directories and Identities (x.500 and OpenID)

Well, this blog has become much more intermittent than I had originally imagined, although I never claimed to be a 'power blogger'...

As an information developer, I've always been fascinated with databases as the holy grail of information storage. Fortunately, much of my client work has taken me in this direction, more on the technical writing side than on the instructional design side, including:

• network operator profiles (Nortel Networks)
• VoIP Active Directory profiles (Cisco Networks)
• student records (Pearson Chancery SMS)

A recent subcontract with the BC Provincial Health Services Authority (thanks Rahel!) afforded me a glimpse into the structural domain of Electronic Health Records, based on the Cerner system.

Current work on a subscriber management system for Telcordia (via Tekmark Global Solutions) is opening a window into the domain of mobile subscriber identities, for call management and service billing functions.

Parallel work documenting a DataGrid Unified Query modeler for Alcatel-Lucent (via Tekmark Global Solutions) is extending my directory services knowledge from X.400 into X.500, as I enter the world of Directory Information Trees (DIT).

Now I have stumbled on an interesting crossover technology, OpenId, which seems to be the current titleholder of the Single Sign On holy grail. Signed up, and in the process found that OpenID owes some technological parentage to Sxip/Active State right here in Vancouver BC. Cool!