Posted 9:19 AM

Kantara or Kan't ara?

The Liberty Alliance announced on Monday that it was morphing into another organization called Kantara (supposedly the Arabic word for "bridge," but as someone else pointed out that would more likely be anglicized as Qantara). I've been waiting for an actual list of founding organizations to be published before I commented, but I must say that Johannes has nailed it when he writes:

"Well, I'm looking for the list of announced supporters, and all I find are five testimonials, at least three of which are from long-term Liberty members. No OpenID Foundation, no OSIS, no Identity Commons, no Project VRM, no OASIS, IETF, W3C and so forth. Very few vendors, too. In my mind, that is pretty far from the threshold needed for success of any kind for any new kind of identity organization."

The folks at Liberty have been trying for almost a year to launch this organization. I participated in a meeting they held with Identity Commons last fall (see "YAUG - Yet Another Umbrella Group" and "more IDtbd ") and I find that the organizing documents for Kantara have not changed a single iota from those roundly denounced and rejected at that meeting.

One is lead to wonder, once again, what this organization can do that others - already existing - can't handle more efficiently, and with less of a Liberty Alliance heavy hand.

Labels: identity commons, liberty alliance