Spending six weeks on a friend's boat in the Caribbean was what it took for Andre Durand to see the big picture of federated identity. "It's more than just a technology problem," he says. Inspired in part by the worldwide ATM financial networks, he returned home with a vision to build the federated-identity infrastrcuture, which he broke down into three pieces: (1) federated-identity software supporting multiple protocols; (2) common legal agreements signed by all parties; and (3) a shared infrastrcuture of managed services.

His for-profit Ping Identity Corporation develops the software, which it then makes available using an open-source model from SourceID.org. The company also manages the shared network infrastrcture of PingID, which is the membership-driven entity that solves the scalability problem of the legal issues (managing the number of relationships that otherwise increases at an n-squared rate).

In this interview, Andre explains his vision for how real-world federated identity will be deployed. He also responds to three recent commentaries: Jim Rapoza of eWeek (who wrote that the Liberty Alliance "missed the point" on privacy), Doug Kaye, the host of IT Conversations (federation isn't as valuable for consumers as the Liberty Alliance documents suggest), and Carol Coye Benson of Glenbrook Partners (federated-identity networks won't support liability transfer).

Listen in to hear what Andre has to say about the coalescing (or not) of SAML, the Liberty Alliance, and WS-Federation, and just when federated identity will become mainstream for those extranet applications and for those that are consumer facing.