Microsoft have promised to make their Passport system work with a variety of technologies and they have even given an indication that they could be working with Liberty Alliance in the future. This is a step which will help answer questions which have been posed across the industry concerning whether Microsoft will be willing to work with the competition in this area.
Microsoft have also claimed that they are considering joining the Liberty Alliance providing the specification from the Alliance, due in a about a month, meets Microsoft"s standard. Microsoft now say that all Passport products will work with products from Liberty Alliance and this move shows that the forty companies now signed up with the Alliance have made a considerable impact on the Redmond giant.
John Noakes (.Net policy and regulatory affairs manager), speaking to Silicon.com, has claimed "We haven"t closed any doors as yet and there is a lot of common ground we need to cover with Liberty Alliance. We are working with several interoperability features as part of my.Net. In the meantime, we remain positive and open about the Alliance.". This is clearly an indication of how universal Microsoft wants passport to be in the future and shows that they didn"t ignore the Alliance"s invitation of membership when it was offered during their formation last year. Many users are sceptical of the need for universal systems like Passport but providing Microsoft keep the system secure it could be a good idea in principle, especially if combined with the resources of the Alliance which include Sun, AOL, Nokia and Sony.