UK Access Management Federation operator change from August 1st 2011

From August 1st 2011 the UK Access Management Federation will be operated on behalf of JISC by a partnership of JISC Collections and EDINA, assuming the role of federation operator from JANET(UK). Until July 31st 2011 JANET(UK) will continue in the role of managing operator, with the support from EDINA in its role as technical operator.

As the new operator from August 1st 2011, JISC Collections will be responsible for the enrolment of new members, both those who wish to join as service providers and those who wish to join as 'identity providers', typically institutions in education with staff and students.

The role of EDINA, who manage the metadata and provide technical support for the UK federation, remains unchanged and federation members will see no alteration to their service.

The lord giveth, and the lord taketh away.

A clear majority - 66% see social sign-in, accessing a site by using their Facebook, Google, Twitter, or other account, as an attractive alternative.

The survey shows stark behavior differences between the respondents favoring social sign-in (“fans”) and those who prefer traditional methods (“critics”).

• 21% of the social sign-in fans planned to spend more money during the 2010 holiday season, compared to only 16% of the critics
• 39% of the social sign-in fans planned to do more of their shopping online than last year, compared to only 25% of the critics
• 25% of the social sign-in fans use social networks to influence others or make purchase decisions, compared to only 13% of the critics
• 35% of the social sign-in fans admit to making a purchase based on a positive social network post, compared to only 16% of the critics

Interesting survey results from Janrain about attitudes to 'social sign-in'.

I strongly suspect that there is something of David White's 'residents' vs 'visitors' divide in the 'fans' vs 'critics' reported here.

The direct implication is on commerce-related websites but I wonder if there are similar implications for education and government in the way that they make use of social sign-in?

PS. The figures appear to be quite high from a UK perspective, which perhaps hints at a different attitude to social sign-in in the US?