Information about Joining

Joining the AAF is currently on a ‘Best Endeavours’ basis to the Federation Rules for Participants till 31 December 2010. All Participants that sign the Commitment to the Rules this year will be given a further 6 months from 1 January 2011 to become fully compliant (ie up to 30 June 2011). Organisations joining the AAF after 1 January 2011 will have 6 months from their date of joining to comply. For further information on membership fees visit the Subscription Fees page.

Federation specialists will be available to assist with the technical deployment at no cost to your institution.Visit the Joining Process for an overview of the steps required to join the Federation.

Directors of Information Technology

• Identify an authoritative source of information about your institution’s users.
• Deploy the Shibboleth Identity Provider component at your institution.
• Determine who is responsible for requesting server and appliances certificates for your institution.
• Identify your institution’s identity management processes.

Resource owners and service providers

• Identify which resources you would like to make available to AAF participants.
• Determine the business criteria for providing services.
• Identify authentication and access rules to be used with your resources.
• Integrate the Shibboleth Service Provider component and/or PKI authentication.

Senior managers (research strategy)

• Analyse AAF integration in terms of the strategic plan for your institution or area.

Researchers, other staff members, and students

• Identify which resources available at the federation you would like to use.

Affiliates (information to be provided to the AAF)

• Corporate profile: Describe the profile of your company – size, services or product areas and number of customers.
• Describe and name the application(s) that you are federating.
• Describe your commercial intent and proposed use of the AAF.
• Describe how your company would engage with the AAF.
• What specific expertise does your company provide.
• Include recommendations or reference sites from two client organisations; if possible, at least one of those from the higher education and research sector and one other.

For more information on joining, download the engagement pack or email the AAF.