As we traverse the web, the number of times we have to input a user-name and password is getting annoying.  We agree.

For this and many other reasons, we developed the Xuropa Platform from scratch.  Well, almost…we did build upon the LAMP infrastructure (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP), but all of the features and functions that you use within the environment are developed internally.

This departure from the fashionable “throw-it-together and throw-it-out-there” Web 2.0 strategy enabled us to provide internal Single-Sign-on (SSO) capability.  For example, you can go from browsing the member community to checking out a development tool in an Online Lab seamlessly.  If we’d thrown together the platform using a collection of templates and “frameworks” this would not have been possible.

So, we’ve solved this issue.  However there’s a bigger problem out there - Cross-Platform SSO.

There are a few projects underway to resolve this, and the better known one is OpenID. As they state, “OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity.”

We’re investigating how to build this into the Xuropa Platform.  Interestingly enough though, some of the major platforms aren’t on-board with this yet.  LinkedIn and Facebook being two of them.  Anyway, we’ll get there and I’ll let you know when it’s up and running.

In the meantime, here are some features that we put into the Xuropa Platform to make your time on the web more efficient:

• Aggregation of nearly 50 news & blog feeds from all over the electronic design industry
• Import of LinkedIn profiles
• Import of LinkedIn contacts
• Import of contacts via csv file
• Company directory “wiki-lite”
• Product directory “wiki-lite”

Thanks to Jonathan David for raising this as an important topic.

Posted under Features, Xuropa