InCommon

Future 2019 and the Fee Change

Summary - Need for the Change

• Continue to develop, improve, and sustain community-developed open source IAM suite (the InCommon Trusted Access Platform)
  
• Provide for Shibboleth support for all InCommon participants
• Recognize and support the dependence between the software and InCommon Federation success

Background

The goal of InCommon Federation is simple: Let’s help members of the community work together whether their team is distributed around the state or across the globe.
    
But it takes a village: . Starting in 1998 with National Science Foundation and Internet2 member support, the community developed tools and services to make it easier and secure to access collaborations and services hosted elsewhere. A federation was one outcome. Software to make it all work for the participants is another.
    
Funding and community requirements for both have been done differently, but it makes sense to change that. The Federation and the software are intertwined and should be designed, developed, and supported together.     
InCommon and Internet2 Trust and Identity community advisory groups have recommended an InCommon fee change, to take effect January 1, 2020, to make this happen.
    
We invite you to join us for an outline of the need and the roadmap for the proposed change.
    
Presenters:
Ted Hanss, Associate CIO, Medicine and Health Divisions, Yale University and Vice-Chair, InCommon Steering
Kevin Morooney, Internet2, VP for Trust and Identity
Sean Reynolds, CIO, Northwestern University and Chair, InCommon Steering

Connection Information

Or an H.323 system:

162.255.37.11 (US West)

162.255.36.11 (US East)

69.174.57.160 (Canada)

For three years, starting in 2016, the TIER program focused on developing and connecting key community-developed software components into an Identity and Access Management suite. TIER was funded by 49 campuses providing $3.6 million over three years, and focused on key software components (Shibboleth, Grouper, COmanage, and midPoint, among others). This support ended in December 2018.

InCommon has assumed responsibility for the continued development and sustainability of the software formerly known as TIER, now the InCommon Trusted Access Platform. 

InCommon provided written communications about the fee change in January 2019 and held a webinar on January 16, 2019, to explain the need and seek community input. InCommon also held four open office hours over a three-week period in late January and early February.

After a series of conversations with the community and community leaders, the InCommon Steering committee recommended and approved an InCommon fee change at its April 2019 meeting, to be implemented as of January 1, 2020. Invoices with the new fees will be sent in early November 2019. to take effect January 1, 2020. These resources will allow continuing software development and ensure its sustainability. The fee change will also provide the resources for Shibboleth support for all InCommon Federation participants (90% of Identity Providers rely on Shibboleth as key infrastructure).

Questions or comments? Email inc-future@incommon.org