Web Services Federation Language (WS-Federation)

For those tracking GXA (the Global XML Web Services Architecture), a new
spec was announced today: WS-Federation [1]. 

Written by Microsoft, IBM, VeriSign, BEA, and RSA Security,
WS-Federation extends the WS-Trust [2] model, and defines mechanisms "to
enable identity, account, attribute, authentication, and authorization
federation across different trust realms.". An example of a use case is
where a security token (ex: X.509 certificate) from a Security Token
Service is exchanged for another security token at a second Security
Token Service - hence crossing trust realms.

Microsoft and IBM have also released today a (related) joint white paper
called "Federation of Identities in a Web services world [3].

Kind Regards,
Joe Chiusano
Booz | Allen | Hamilton

[1] http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2003-07-08-b.html
[2]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnglobspec/html/ws-trust.asp
[3] http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ws-fedworld/