The HailStorm Foundation Services

By Matt Rosoff

As of press time, Microsoft had revealed plans for at least 14 new HailStorm foundation services that will enable Internet-based applications to share relevant user data and notify users of important events (authentication will handled by the existing Passport service).

Some of the foundation services will simply contain basic information about the user:

myAddress will contain both electronic (e-mail, phone) and geographic addresses for a Passport-based user identity.

myProfile will contain information about a user that is not contained within myAddress or other foundation services, such as nicknames, photographs, or identification numbers.

myFavoriteWebSites will contain a list of favorite URLs.

With these basic foundation services, users will likely be able to set permissions so that some applications (such as a shipping function at an e-commerce site) can read all information, while others may be able to see only generic demographic information, such as a Zip code (which might enable a news site to promote local news stories).