The Liberty Alliance plans to give its Web services framework a consumer-oriented bent, enabling federated social networking.A version of the new framework is set to be released for public review within a couple of weeks. It will be followed by a review period before a final version is set this fall. With the upgraded framework, users will be able to share items such as music lists, photos and calendars, with privacy and security issues addressed by the framework, said Brett McDowell director of the Liberty Alliance. “We’re solving the identity theft problem with this from an online perspective,” McDowell said. There will be no way, for example, for phishing of identities.The Liberty Alliance focuses on developing a standard for federated network identity supporting current and emerging network devices. The alliance this week announced the launch of its Global Web Services Deployment Program, featuring a kick-off event in San Francisco on June 12. The program features workshops focused on identity-enabled Web services. Liberty believes that federation is needed for identity-enabled Web services to advance. The June 12 event will feature alliance members from Intel, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and Neustar. Software Development