Overview
In mid-June 2023, an ad hoc working group of the InCommon Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) published its final report, “Formalizing the Role of Federation Proxies within the InCommon Federation [FR].” The report describes federation proxies (FPs), summarizes their benefits and challenges, shares insights gleaned by the authors, and makes specific recommendations. While there are many technological considerations involved with FPs, the recommended actions were not primarily technical in nature:
This working group will continue the ad hoc group’s work by developing specific FP policy guidance for community consultation.
Learn More: Charter for the Federation Proxies Working Group
A group mailing list can be found at: https://lists.incommon.org/sympa//info/fedproxieswg
Work Items
The Federation Proxies Working Group will:
- Review the insights and recommendations in [FR], including relevant details from the AARC Blueprint Architecture.
- Draft a “more precise vocabulary for articulating major concepts, components, and interactions” for FPs per the Charter.
- Draft a “Federation Proxy Practices Statement” to enhance InCommon policies and agreements addressing FP-related concerns per the Charter.
- Seek a variety of FP perspectives, e.g. operators and managers of Virtual Organizations (VOs), library services, and hub-and-spoke Identity Providers (IdPs).
Terms
The following terms apply to all InCommon Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Working Groups:
- When a working group is agreed, the TAC Sponsor will place a call for participation in the InCommon community.
- A chair, and optionally co-chairs, for the group is chosen from interested parties from the community.
- Internet2 provides facilities for the working group, including meeting support, wiki space, and mailing lists.
- An appropriate output from the group is produced. This is typically a working group report, proposed specifications and / or guidance documents.
- When the Working Group is in agreement, the chair shares the outputs with the wider InCommon community with an open period for discussion and comment. This is typically a period of 4 weeks, but may be longer if appropriate.
- After this period of time, TAC signs off on the work item. The InCommon Steering Committee may review, endorse, and/or approve the work item. Work is either written up as a formal white paper, left on the wiki but promoted as finished work or occasionally submitted as an Internet Draft.
References