Press Releases: Vancouver, BC - September 27, 2004

Sxip Network Now Available:
First distributed public identity network released to the community

Vancouver, BC - September 27, 2004 – Sxip Network, the first distributed public identity network, was released today to the community. Sxip gives individuals the ability to create and manage their online personas, facilitating Single Sign-On and informed attribute exchange. Websites and portals can establish deeper relationships with their users while complying with privacy legislation. Any website can easily participate in this loosely coupled, extensible network.

The goal of Sxip Networks is to create a public utility for users to maintain a persistent identity across the web, in effect a “true digital identity”. In order to achieve this, the Network will act as a central authority mapping globally unique identities to sites that are authoritative for them – similar to the central DNS the Internet relies on.

The Sxip Network is architecturally different from existing identity management protocols. Sxip is designed to allow users to authenticate once with their identity provider (a Homesite) and then release identity information to other websites (Membersites). This exchange of information is facilitated using the Simple eXtensible Identity Protocol (SXIP). Users register for the Sxip Network through Homesites. When a user completes the registration process, a GUPI (Global Unique Persona Identifier) is created on the Sxip Network Root along with the name of the Homesite that is authoritative for the user. Each user can have multiple GUPIs or 'Personas' that relate to real world scenarios such as: work, home, online community, etc. Much like DNS, the Sxip Network provides a central repository that maps the user’s unique identifier (GUPI) with a specific Homesite on the Network. This architecture not only makes it easy to implement Sxip, but also relies on existing trust relationships.

For developers, the technical specifications, and the Perl, Python and PHP Membersite Development Kits (MDKs) for the Sxip Network are now available to all at https://sxip.org. Java MDK support will be added soon.

To access the files, users first need to register at demohomesite.com and then click on the sxip in button. Former Network beta users will no longer be able to use their current Sxip accounts and will need to register a new one.

To aid developers in using the Network, a number of documents are available for download, including:

UPDATE: these documents are no longer available

The Sxip Network and protocol is intended to be community-driven and open to all. The protocol can be easily extended to support identity initiatives between communities, organizations, and standards groups. The development tools and applications are all Open Source projects, and are designed to be easily integrated with existing projects. If you would like information or assistance on how to “sxipify” your open source project, please email .

For more information on Sxip and personal digital identity, please visit our website at sxip.com or attend our webinar scheduled for 10 am PST, Tuesday September 28. Registration information is available.


Media/Analyst Contact:
Lori Pike
Director, Corporate Communications
Sxip Identity
604.808.6655 cell /