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Re: [eduGAIN-discuss] eduGAIN and non "academic" IdPs


Chronological Thread 
  • From: Leif Johansson <leifj AT sunet.se>
  • To: edugain-discuss AT geant.net
  • Subject: Re: [eduGAIN-discuss] eduGAIN and non "academic" IdPs
  • Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:45:06 +0100
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> [...]
> This did not touch the point. We do not need to agree what an academic is.
> eduGAIN has done a great job by defining a controlled vocabulary for
> eduPersonAffiliation, I assume Feide is closest to the suggested use
> (https://www.feide.no/attribute/edupersonaffiliation) IF all IdPs would
> implement EPA like defined by Feide, any country could define Academic the
> way they wanted, with students (="member"), without (="employee") or even
> stricter (="faculty"). eduGAIN does not need to define that.
>

I believe this is the correct reference for epa:
https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/macedir/eduPersonAffiliation-2011-draft-02

>[...]
> Yes, it so happened that a professor in Gothenburg tried to login during a
> presentation and was not very happy that it did not work, because she had
> EPA=employee, not faculty.
> It is just an attribute. This very language I am using here is not my
> native one but it has it's use.
>

Just out of curiosity: did that professor contact his IT department and
if so what was the outcome of that discussion?


> [...]
> It is just an attribute that says one is a professor, teacher lecturer.
> Take the definition in Feide: faculty = "A teacher (or in higher education:
> member of the scientific staff)" as opposed to staff = "An employee without
> any educational responsibility" I assume most universities have professors,
> lecturers and "employees without educational responsibility". The fact that
> Swamid rejects faculty barred the Swedish professor from using my service.
>

OK I get it.

You believe SWAMID (as an example of a federation operator) should do
_something_ to promote faculty. Fair enough!

Three questions for you:

1. Why do you think 'employee', 'member' and 'student' is almost
universally available while 'faculty' and 'staff' is not?

2. What do you think SWAMID (in particular) did in order to get those 3
almost universally supported by IdPs in SWAMID?

3. What power does SWAMID have over its customers (its a trick question)?

Cheers Leif








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