One of the features we'd like to introduce on www.utah.gov in the near future is personalization. The issue is a real one because, like a large consumer portal, we have hundreds of services and thousands of constituencies. There's no way a single front page, no matter how well designed, can serve all of those needs. What a rancher in Juab county wants from utah.gov is likely very different from the needs of a single mother of two in Murray City.
The basis for any personalization, form-filling, etc. is ID and user profiles. A few years ago, that meant designing a profile system and hooking it up. In today's world, however, you need to support at least three things:
- AOL Screenname (which is part of the Liberty Alliance)
- Microsoft passport
- You ID management system.
Unfortunately, you still need to roll your own for a couple of reasons. First, many users won't have a profile at AOL or Microsoft and won't want to build one. Second, there are profile parameters that won't be in those systems. What you're really getting when you sign on with Passport or Liberty Alliance is single sign-on and interoperability with their partners, not a solution to your own problems.
