JISC

Start date: 1 July 2004

End date: 30 June 2006

Funding programme: Core Middleware: Technology Development programme

Project website: http://www.angel.ac.uk/PERSEUS

JISC theme(s): Access management, Information environment

PERSEUS (Portal-Enabled Resources via Shibbolized End-User Security) will address the key challenge of Shibboleth-based access management to information resources via an institutional portal, using the uPortal Open Source portal toolkit.  The project will deliver a generalized campus architecture for adoption by FE and HE institutions, supported by documentation at conceptual and technical levels, and reusable software components available as Open Source.  

PERSEUS extends work started in the LSE-led SECURe Project, due to conclude in July 2004. The most important function for portal middleware is authorization management to the hybrid collections of resources, for institutional learning, teaching, research and administration - resolving (with minimal human intervention) questions of "who can access what". In addition to testing the potential for integration of the PERMIS authorization management system with Shibboleth, the project proposes to evaluate alternative technologies for this function. In particular, the system initially developed at Stanford University under the Stanford Authority Project is favoured for further development by NMI-EDIT, and is now the subject of the SIGNET Project.  

The PERSEUS project will also investigate methods of authority management for less well-defined groups of users, by implementing secure portal access for 'short-term virtual organisations' such as LSE Alumni Special Interest Groups, and the problems raised by 'multi-layered portal' environments - where users wish to access resources managed by one portal (such as a subject collection shared between several libraries), via the consolidated view presented by their own institutional portal. PERSEUS will collaborate with the international NEREUS Consortium for economics research resources for this purpose. Commercial suppliers of key information systems to LSE will be supporting PERSEUS, including:

• SITS (Student Records)
• WebCT (Virtual Learning Environment)
• Sentient Learning (Reading List Management)
• Endeavor (Library Resources Management)