The return of something good

A few years ago, over in the Directory Services newsletter (now called renamed Identity Management) I referred to a Novell project called “Personal Directory.” This was technology that was briefly launched, then unceremoniously dumped, by Novell Developer Services back in the fall of 2000.

It’s back!

In browsing around Novell’s new open source software site, I came across a project called “Project: Personal Directory” with this description:

“Novell Personal Directory enables all of a user´s personal information to be stored and managed in an [Lightweight Directory Access Protocol]-based personal directory, under the direct control of the individual. It further provides controlled sharing of such information to external parties (individuals or organizations).”

Looking back to what I’d written in November, 2000, I quoted Developer Services as saying: “Novell Personal Directory enables all of a user’s personal information to be stored and managed in a [Lightweight Directory Access Protocol]-based personal directory under the direct control of the individual. It also provides controlled sharing of such information to external parties (individuals or organizations). It does not depend on an external server, but it can leverage one if it exists.”

Sure looks the same to me. And, in fact, it is. The Novell Personal Directory is something you can freely download and use for your own purposes. It supports Version 3 of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (the current version) and could be useful both for testing and in a production environment. Novell even suggests some possible uses, such as:

* Enabling server-based LDAP applications to continue to work in remote, disconnected mode. This is done using the LDAP proxy capability.

* Creating a new class of personal, peer-to-peer applications that leverage the directory on the client.

* Testing, demoing, and piloting LDAP applications, tools and utilities, without needing to connect to a server system.

I haven’t personally explored all of the possibilities offered, but with today’s mobile workforce and the emphasis on identity, roles and digital persona the thought of having eDirectory data available wherever your user might go is certainly intriguing. Since it is based on the public LDAP standard, it should work with not only eDirectory but also Active Directory, Sun ONE Directory (formerly iPlanet, formerly Netscape directory), the OpenLDAP directory and many others. You might be able to leverage this in an in-house developed Single Signon project. The possibilities seem endless.

Take a look at this package or, even better, have your in-house developers take a look. If they come up with an interesting application or service, let me know (NetWare@vquill.com) and we’ll look at it in an upcoming issue.