Federation technology and Virtual Worlds for Learning: Research trends and opportunities towards identity federation

Currently, Virtual Worlds technology is used for educational purposes in a cross-disciplinary way. However, particularly in formal learning institutions, its widespread adoption is far from being a reality due a broad range of technological challenges. This paper addresses identity federation systems as possible solutions to some of the interoperability, security and user management problems. Our major goal is to present what systems, architectures and standards are standing out, how the research area is moving toward identity federation, and why educational institutions need to address it. We consider identity, privacy, security-assurance, and interoperability as main concerns within our analysis, in order to interconnect digital identities with physical identities, and create a unique federated identity system that can act independently from the service in use. Thus, VWs technologies will be able to scale and evolve independently without compromising user's identity.