Microsoft agrees to participate in ID project ... For the first time representatives of Liberty Alliance and Microsoft are going to sit down together ... Microsoft is to meet this month with vendors and organisations that are backing several different identity management systems. The Microsoft meeting suggests that cooperation between the software giant and its peers is improving.

These are just a few examples of press excitement resulting from the formal announcement of the Liberty Alliance's Concordia project and the news that Burton Group's Catalyst 2007 conference will host a panel discussion between representatives from Liberty, Microsoft and OpenID about identity interoperability. Perhaps it's because I have been following identity so closely over the last few years but I can't say that this really justifies the implication of the headlines that this represents a significant change of heart for Microsoft. Microsoft has been an active participant (and arguably leading) the charge towards interoperable identity solutions for a number of years.

Far more interesting, as far as I am concerned, is what the panel will be discussing. Concordia is initially focusing on gathering real-world use cases some of which will be presented to the panel. With effective identity management so critical to many of the strategic challenges and opportunities that organisations are faced with today, it's time to move away from "vendor sports" and address the needs of those organisations.