Tech Buzz 1/03

The Liberty Alliance is fighting for truth, justice and onepassword for all. Spear-headed by Sun Microsystems, the project isworking toward releasing an online password and authenticationsystem that will allow users to have one password for all their Websites and e-commerce transactions. That concept is similar toMicrosoft Passport, but the Liberty Alliance wants to leverage itsnon-Microsoft status and open-source stance to win over surfers,Web sites and businesses. You can expect interoperability betweenthe two systems.

Big guns like MasterCard and Sony are listed as founders, whileothers like Earthlink and Visa have also signed on. Interestedentrepreneurs can join as associates for a yearly fee of $1,000.With that, you can comment on the project's activities and getinformation before it's released to the public. If the LibertyAlliance catches on, growing businesses will want to enable theirWeb sites as a convenience and draw for their Web patrons. Visitthe Liberty Alliance at www.projectliberty.org to catch up on recentnews, check into the specifications or join the project.