We’re seeing a lot more discussion on the topic of single-sign on for SaaS environments. The issue is becoming more important as security emerges as a top concern for companies considering making the move to cloud-based environments.

OneLogin is a new company that offers single sign-on, cloud-based service that allows for small and mid-sized companies to enjoy the same level of security as large enterprise companies.

Most small companies do not deploy security methods that employ SAML, (Security Assertion Markup Language) an XML-based standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between security domains. It’s expensive to deploy. Open-source tools do exist but require someone to understand how it works and deployed in a work environment.

OneLogin configures a browser to give the experience of a single sign in. It bypasses the traditional user name/password system, which often has gaping security holes.

To us, this is a big reason why the new breed of SaaS services are not taken seriously by security conscious enterprise customers. The security can not be trusted.

With OneLogin, a person would be directed to a login page that would automatically fill-in the information for the person. The person is provided their own OpenID account. OneLogin knows the person’s session so no second authentication is required.

OneLogin’s infrastructure sits in the cloud, which means that a customer does not have to maintain dedicated servers and people to keep the system working.

There is no install. Rackspace hosts the web server and the database.

Two-factor authentication is available. People may use a Yubi key, which used a USB port to plug in and activate a random number authorization. People may also soon be able to use Verisign’s VIP service that gives a mobile device the capability to generate a new password every 30 sec. You then input the number within 30 seconds to receive permission.

The OneLogin service works on most SaaS services, including Google Apps. There is a free service. For SAML capabilities, the cost is $8 per user per month.

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View full post on Web Technology Blog, Development and Social Media

Buzz, Google’s controversial attempt to unseat Facebook as the most mainstream of social activity stream readers, just made some much-needed changes that Facebook could learn from as well.

Buzz users now have more granular control over what social interactions with content trigger an email sent to their email inboxes and explicit explanations for why each piece of content was sent by email to them. These changes are a good start but ought to extended into the body of Buzz as well.

Just like most Facebook users can’t explain the difference between the new algorithmically filtered News Feed and the raw bulk flow of the Live Feed, Buzz too could benefit from explaining the mystery behind the magic. As social networking analyst danah boyd said at the opening talk of SXSW today, privacy online is grounded in user control.

Buzz violated the basic understanding of email as private when it surprised users by layering the new social network on top of their private Gmail. By granting users more control over information, today’s changes are a small move in a better direction.

Why Not Give Users The Tools to Drive Their Own Experience?

Might social activity stream participation become more mainstream if users had clear and more complete control over what they see, what they expose and to whom? Many people believe that users are incapable of dealing with too many settings and need these decisions made for them. Perhaps it’s just a user experience challenge, though. Nobody said creating the ultimate interface for mainstream users to drive their online activity was going to be easy.

Google’s move with Buzz today looks like a nice first start. Hopefully it will be extended beyond the Buzz and Gmail relationship.

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Two of the people behind the products in Creative Suite have started a blog specifically about design and web technologies.

We have been spending a lot of time internally thinking about how our tools can best support and take advantage of some of the new functionality in HTML 5, and we wanted to share a couple of early ideas with you.

I’ve always thought that once HTML5 got a bit more concrete, you’d see design tools from Adobe that took advantage of it. The benefit of Flash is that we control the runtime and can tie features to the development cycle of our tools. Not the case with HTML5 and CSS3. But now that the standards have started to coalesce and have support in more browsers, we can make those features part of our design tools. Hopefully we’ll see a lot more of the examples above and I’d encourage you to keep an eye on the blog for info about design tools at Adobe and the web.

View full post on Digital Backcountry – Ryan Stewart’s Flash Platform Blog

Smartphones Will Shake up Paid Content Debate
Smartphones are on track to surpass PC sales very soon, and some parts of the world balk at paid content, so vendors are about to face a challenge when it comes to making money off these devices.

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Serie A fears of losing Champions League place
There are fears inside Italian football that Serie A will lose their final Champions League place. Italian teams risk dropping down the UEFA ranking to the degree that the Bundesliga will have four entrants and the Peninsula reduced to three from 2011-12. “This could happen because at times our sides did not consider the UEFA Cup, now the Europa League, an adequate stage,” said FIGC president …

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