IBM and Novell have kicked off an open source project to create an alternative to Microsoft's proprietary Infocard online authentication system.

Project Higgins will put users in control of their information rather than it residing within the data centres of corporations.

This allows individuals quickly to update information such as a change of address, and limit access to confidential information including medical files.

Higgins will split an identity file into small pieces containing data such as email, phone number, address and credit card number. This allows the user, or a trusted application, to determine which organisations get access to a specific piece of information.

Enterprises can access the information using special Higgins open source tools, or build support into existing applications.

"The internet has changed the way consumers think about privacy, and Higgins will help change the way people manage their personal identity information," Dale Olds, a distinguished engineer at Novell, said in a statement.

"Ultimately this approach will give consumers greater control, and businesses powerful new ways to interact with customers."

Initiatives such as Higgins are referred to as identity meta systems. They allow developers to create applications that use digital identities without requiring them to know about the underlying technology, letting them deal with multiple ID technologies at the same time.

The key to a federated identity system is that it allows applications to rely on claims by a trusted agent rather than credentials (the actual password).

The system works in a similar way to a doorman at a nightclub verifying the age of guests by looking at their driving licences, allowing bar staff to trust that all people inside are of the legal drinking age.