InCommon Steering Committee Meeting - April 5, 2021
Informational Items
- Trust and Identity Project List - KART
Agenda
- Identity Provider as a Service Working Group report (30 minutes: Keith Wessel, Mary McKee)
- Legal termination and billing/late payment process, aka "InCommon Collections" (30 minutes: Kevin, Ann, John Krienke)
- Next Steering Planning session - Friday, April 16 - 2-4 pm ET
Minutes
Attending: Christine Miki, Jeremy Livingston, Dee Childs, Marc Wallman, Ted Hanss, Chris Misra, Chris Sedore, Laura Paglione, Ann West, Brad Christ
With: Dean Woodbeck, Elaine Alejo, Rob Carter, Mary McKee, David Bantz, Keith Wessel, Albert Wu, John Krienke, Kevin Morooney, Von Welch
Regrets: Dave Robinson, Kristi Holmes
Identity Provider as a Service Working Group Report
Mary McKee, co-chair of the Identity Provider as a Service (IdPaaS) Working Group, provided a summary of the working group’s report and outcomes.
Key recommendations (from the report)
- Developing a sustainable “Federation-Ready Identity Provider” program that recognizes IdPaaS solutions that support all requirements and standards needed for their customers to fully participate in Federation activities.
- Helping prospective customers to understand four common patterns (“integration models”) for IdPaaS integration into their IT infrastructure, determine which best aligns with their goals, and identify and compare Federation-ready products in that space.
- Placing particular focus on promoting the “Federation Connector” integration model, which allows institutions to maintain their existing single sign-on (SSO) products in conjunction with a lightweight product that bridges between campus SSO and the Federation
The working group focused on organizations looking to outsource their Identity Provider and developed four common patterns that organizations use when integrating an IdPaaS into their infrastructure. Organizations are looking to streamline operations and understanding which potential partners would best serve their needs. We want to make sure that federation interoperability remains on the radar.
Organizations may not have a federation expert on staff, so ensuring there are IdPaaS providers that follow best practices and InCommon requirements is key. The working group did not endorse an IdPaaS provider, but rather outlined what such a provider should support.
One of the challenges is communicating with the CIO in language that they understand (a CIO might not know about federation, for example). One of the working group recommendations is to publish an entry-level document on this topic, and on the value proposition for InCommon
The report reflects that InCommon has evolved into a platform with one role being to develop and communicate standards. The newly created InCommon Catalyst program will be important to this effort, as the Catalysts understand InCommon, have expertise, and are committed to working as part of the community
Steering Acceptance of IdP as a Service WG report
It was moved (Laura) and seconded (Jeremy) to accept the IdP as a Service Working Group report. Unanimously approved.
Invoice and Collections Workflow
John Krienke provided a report on plans to do some tightening of the workflow regarding invoices and payment. With the addition of eduroam and the growth in InCommon, we now send invoices of relatively small amounts to thousands of organizations. The current approach stems from the days when there were fewer invoices and we developed a culture of “niceness,” so we have a growing number of invoices that are 120 days or more past due.
Part of the strategy will be to establish a point at which we will remove an organization’s metadata if they have an overdue invoice. While we would like to maintain a high-touch culture when it comes to invoices, we need to increase efficiency and reduce overhead.
Some suggestions from Steering members:
- Offer a multi-year contract, perhaps with a slight discount
- Offer a monthly automatic payment option
- Add a finance charge at some point
- While it is nice to be nice, don’t be too nice
Members agreed that Steering should have insight into this process and become involved when metadata removal or termination is being considered.
Planning Session April 16
The next quarterly Steering planning session is Friday, April 16, 2-4 pm. Kevin and Steering Exec will work out the format and agenda, but this is the general direction:
- Discuss the inventory of contexts for communicating
- Discuss the inventor of personas with whom we communicate