Craig Burton

An eternal optimist (gotta be to play with cardspace) gives some good information on naming and usage.

CardSpace in a Nutshell

Cardspace is a software client that runs on Microsoft Windows, and
which can participate as an Identity Selector within the framework of
the Identity Metasystem, a web services framework that utilizes WS-*
protocols to communicate claims between three parties: the Identity
Provider (IdP), the Relying Party (RP), and the Identity Selector.

1. A user requests access to a resource or begins a transaction that
   requires identity metasystem validation, causing the Relying Party
   responsible for the resource/transaction to trigger an Identity
   Selector client to start on the userís local desktop. Examples could be
   authentication to a web resource, or entering into a purchasing
   transaction where credit card information may be transferred.
2. The Identity Selector client prompts the user to choose one of
   possibly many ìinformation cardsî that represent data owned/managed by
   any number of different Identity Providers, and that match the types of
   claims required by the Relying Party. Note that the card is just a
   pointer to the data, it does not contain any data.
3. Once the user selects a card, the Identity Selector client brokers
   the transference of claims between the chosen Identity Provider and the
   original Relying Party. If/when the Relying Party accepts the brokered
   claims, the transaction is considered successful and the CardSpace
   client closes.

Things to Remember

• Although CardSpace is just one implementation of one part of a
  3-part system, many people say ìCardSpaceî and mean not just the
  client, but the whole process. This isnít perfect usage but it gets the
  general point across. CardSpace has much more visibility than ìthe
  Identity Metasystemî as an understood term.
• CardSpace and Windows Card Services (WCS) are the same thing, and they both used to be known as ìInfoCardî.
• The CardSpace client is installed as part of the ì.NET Framework 3.0″ subsystem (formerly WinFX).
• The CardSpace client can be triggered in two ways (that I know of):
  • From IE7 (and hopefully one day from other browsers)
  • From a service built using Windows Communication Foundation (formerly Indigo).
• Information cards can be of two types:
  • Self-issued: data associated with these cards comes from a local
    Identity Provider,built into the CardSpace client and editable by
    users. This is the type of card you create when you ìAdd a cardî in the
    GUI.
  • Managed: data associated with these cards come from some
    third-party ìauthorityî. Users may not edit claims made by these cards
    using CardSpace, they must go to the third party and use whatever
    mechanisms the third party provides.

I issued myself an infocard with the “digital identities” control panel. I did this without downloading the .Net 3.0 upgrade.

Upgrading to .Net 3.0 takes a lot of work and I haven’t finished it yet. In my opinion this is way too much work for the regular user. You have to delete all sorts of obscure Msft stuff and reinstall, reboot etc. Not for the feint hearted.

I wonder if Msft will listen to my complaints? Hey I’m an innovater/early adopter/blogger not an “enterprise” customer. Where is the money in that?