CACTI Next-Generation Credential Use Cases Working Group Charter
2023-04-26
Status: FINAL // Approved by CACTI May 26, 2023
Problem Statement
The landscape of electronic identity is shifting away from the strongly-centralized model which is used in traditional federated web single-sign-on infrastructures, to one which empowers users (credential holders) to choose what identity they assert, at what time, with what relying party/verifier, and what types of information they disclose. The latter type of user-centric identity ecosystem is known variously as “self-sovereign identity”, “verifiable credentials”, “wallet-based credentials”, etc.
In order to understand if, why, and how the research and education identity and access management ecosystem needs to grow and adapt to this new environment and set of expectations, we need to understand the use cases and drivers for adoption of these technologies, from the perspective of our diverse user communities: Learners, teachers, researchers, administrators, alumni, etc. It is not possible for CACTI members, in isolation, to derive meaningful or all-encompassing use-cases without the strong participation of a larger community of practitioners and users.
Stakeholders/Influencers/Influences
- Students/learners
- Teachers
- Researchers
- IAM practitioners
- Registrars
- Federation operators
- Large (research) facilities operators
- Academic administrators
- Physical access representatives (Example: Campus police)
- Government sector (Drivers’ license standards/issuers)
- Private sector (Wallet implementers/mobile device manufacturers, mobile operating system suppliers, smaller wallet providers, etc.)
Charter
The Next-Generation Credential Use Cases Working Group will
- Collect a broad range of prospective use cases for this set of next-generation credentials from across as many stakeholder areas as possible, which include strength/weakness/opportunity/threat assessments
- Organize them along axes of affinity and likely applicability/return-on-investment/etc.
- Select one or two high-return-on-investment candidates for proof-of-concept work
- Keep CACTI informed of the progress of the working group
- Deliver a final report to CACTI including organized summaries of the stories and their respective rankings / affinities, as well as recommendations for proofs-of-concept implementation, as well as recommendations for next steps that CACTI should take to move the conversation/strategic discussion and decision making forward
- Conduct a final community-facing discussion at Internet2 Technology Exchange in September, 2023
Explicitly out of scope are
- Solving any of the problems that are presented in the use cases
- “Solutioneering” / pre-optimization
- Pursuing implementations (NOTE: Recommendations for implementations (requirements) are in-scope for the final report.)
Membership
Membership is open to all members of any community outlined in the stakeholders section, and/or any subject-matter experts, users, or deployers beyond those stakeholders who may provide value to the working group discussions.
Work Products
- Final report to CACTI/the larger R&E identity and access management community
- Discussion at Internet2 Technology Exchange in the fall of 2023