Easy Expression of Authorisation Policies

The primary purpose of this 20 month long project is to allow Gridmanagers to be able to specify the authorisation policy for access totheir Grid computing resources through the use of controlled naturallanguage. The policy tool will parse the policy, interpret it, and store it in its own internal representation, using a model and ontologydeveloped at the start of the research. The policy tool will prompt themanager to clarify any unclear terms (e.g. what is Fred? Is it afilename or a username?), resolve any ambiguities, and once this hasbeen done will print the policy out in similar natural language, usingwording as near to the original input language as possible. This willallow the manager to see if the computer has fully understood hispolicy, but if not, the manager will need to edit his policy andresubmit it, until the computer's version is identical in meaning to his own. Finally, the tool will compile the policy into two existing XML authorization policy languages (XACML and PERMIS) so that the policy can be automatically fed into existing Grid authorization engines (policy decision points). In this way, we can be assured that the policy that is implemented is the one that the manager intended it to be.