Review: User Accounts

Existing UO Computing Account related policies

Identity Management Project web site (not implemented yet).
Affiliation Types – Who is eligible for a computing account.
Affiliation Resource Access Rules – Eligibility rules for when acces starts and ends for each managed resource.

Related policies at other institutions
(from Andrew: this was linked from the Tufts e-mail policy page and looks like a nice model: http://uit.tufts.edu/?pid=172)

Areas to consider for User Account policy

Policy

Acceptable Use
Affiliate definition
Sponsored accounts
Guest wireless access
Generic/group accounts

Practice

Password policy (structure, expiration interval, history)
Notifications
- password expiration
- account disable
Resources that can be accessed with a UO computing account
- Eligibility dates for when access begins and ends
Sponsored and Guest accounts
- Who can be a sponsor and/or approve these accounts?
- Account duration, renewal interval
- Personal information required by UO in order to get a sponsored or guest account.
Departmental use of central UO account authentication service (not sure if this is the right area for this, but it is something that we will be dealing with in the near future)
- What is criteria for integrating department service with central authentication service.

from Andrew (nov 30): the issue of guest accounts has been coming up a lot. Examples include visiting scholars who need access to the wireless network when they’re working in the library, guest lecturers who need access to the Blackboard system, etc.

Persistence of account access for alumni is another one that worries me, esp. as departments develop “e-portfolio” programs. (see for example Arts & Adminstration’s pilot at http://eportfolio.uoregon.edu/, where the “eportfolios” sit on the student’s www.uoregon.edu/~username acounts!). FWIW I think these are really more like student websites, and don’t reflect emerging eportfolio models that are implemented at the institutional level in order to reflect the student’s entire experience and provide authorized users with validated transcripts and other evaluative material.

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