The problem: Many proprietary research databases have donated free access to select Wikipedia editors (Credo Reference, HighBeam Research, JSTOR). Managing separate account distribution for each service doesn't scale well. The idea: Centralize access to these separate resources behind a single secure (firewalled) gateway, to which accounts would be given to a limited number of approved users. After logging in to this single gateway, users would be able to enter any of the multiple participating research databases without needing to log in to each one separately. The question: What are the basic technical specifications for setting up such a system. What are open source options, ideally? What language would be ideal? What is required to host such a system? Can you suggest a sketch of the basic steps necessary to implement such an idea? Any advice, from basics to details would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks so much! Ocaasi http://enwp.org/User:Ocaasi _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

I'm trying to understand the differences between: *phpMyAdmin *SAML *OpenID *OpenVPN

We currently have relationships with three separate resource databases. *HighBeam, 1000 authorized accounts, 700 active (http://enwp.org/WP:HighBeam) *JSTOR, 100 accounts, all active (http://enwp.org/WP:JSTOR) *Credo, 400 accounts, all active (http://enwp.org/WP:CREDO) No parties have agreed to participate in The Wikipedia Library *yet*, as it's still in the concept stage, but my initial projection is that 1000 editors would have access to it, and 100 additional users per year would be granted. One of the challenges will be getting all the resource providers to agree on that number, but the hope is that once some do, it will create a cascade of adoption. So we're not looking at *thousands* of users, but more likely several hundreds. Still, given the impact of our most active editors, 1000 of them with access to the library would have significant impact. After all, we can't cannibalize these databases' subscription business by opening the library to ''all'' editors. It must be a carefully selected and limited group. -----Original Message----- From: wikitech-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikitech-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Ocaasi Ocaasi Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 6:22 PM To: wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikitech-l] Creating a centralized access point for propriety databases/resources Hi Folks! The problem: Many proprietary research databases have donated free access to select Wikipedia editors (Credo Reference, HighBeam Research, JSTOR). Managing separate account distribution for each service doesn't scale well. The idea: Centralize access to these separate resources behind a single secure (firewalled) gateway, to which accounts would be given to a limited number of approved users. After logging in to this single gateway, users would be able to enter any of the multiple participating research databases without needing to log in to each one separately. The question: What are the basic technical specifications for setting up such a system. What are open source options, ideally? What language would be ideal? What is required to host such a system? Can you suggest a sketch of the basic steps necessary to implement such an idea? Any advice, from basics to details would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! Ocaasi http://enwp.org/User:Ocaasi _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l