My very first Venn of Identity blog post also included a second diagram, covering something like “identity in web services”. It was little-noticed, I think, because the deployment of the more esoteric pieces of WS-* and ID-WSF was pretty low. I’ve been itching to add OAuth to it, given its wildfire-esque spread. Last week gave me my excuse, and with further feedback (thanks Paul and Dom!), I’ve continued to revise it. So here’s a new version for your perusal (click to enlarge).

As with the original version, the relative heights and sizes are significant: they indicate roughly how voluminous, vertically applicable, and far away from “plumbing” each solution gets. (Unlike the original, however, this one seems to give off a Jetsons vibe.)

Some thoughts from space-age 2009:

OAuth is helping many app developers meet their security and access goals with minimal fuss (80/20 point, anyone?), and by providing for user mediation of service permissions, it is easily as “user-centric” as any other technology claiming the title. It’s these lovable qualities that led the ProtectServe/User-Managed Access effort to use OAuth as a substrate.

ID-WSF still provides identity services functionality that nothing else does, and some folks I’ve been talking to lately still chafe at the lack of more widespread support for these features. But obviously it’s still a “rich” solution vs. a “reach” one.

WS-*, ah yes, what to say?… It uniquely solves certain issues, but do all of them really need solving? My Summer School trackmate Paul Downey had some choice words about this, and his WS-TopTrumps class exercise proved that the star in WS-* really does match everything possible — that’s too much. And trackmate Marc Hadley pointed out lots of benefits you get “for free” with a REST approach, which it was hard not to notice when we all chose to design REST interfaces for his class exercise despite having a SOAP option.

To be fair, Paul and Marc and also trackmate Rich Salz — who has an uncanny ability to explain complex security concepts simply — stressed the value of the core pieces for message security if you’re using SOAP. It would be interesting indeed if OAuth, or extensions to it with the same pure-HTTP design center, were to “grow leftward” to accommodate the use cases covered by the WS-*/ID-WSF intersection.

(Anyone think the new REST-* effort will win in this space anytime soon? I’m a bit dubious, myself. Its name sure didn’t inspire any love in our lecture room.)

I’m putting together a one-day Web Services and Identity course with a great lineup of additional lecturers: Paul Downey, Marc Hadley, and Rich Salz, all of whom have taught at the School before. Some of my previous posts (2007, 2006) give the flavor of the event and my series of courses.

You won’t want to miss any part of the week — you’ll sharpen your skills, you’ll hang out with great people, and you’ll get your questions answered about how to apply the hottest tech (check out all the new course subjects!) to your hottest business problems. What are you waiting for? Register already!

(If you’re the hesitant type, you can just follow along on Twitter at @xmlsummerschool for now, but make sure not to miss any registration deadlines…)