About the InCommon TAC 2024 Work Plan
February 15, 2024: This page contains the InCommon Technical Advisory Committee's 2024 work plan through June 2024. In mid 2024, TAC will review its progress and incorporate developments from the InCommon Futures 2 initiative to set its work plan for the second half of 2024.
The TAC provides recommendations related to the technical operation and management of InCommon. The work plan outlines the proposed technical priorities, particularly for the InCommon Federation.
If you would like to comment on any of the existing items, please add a comment to the wiki page. Note that you need to sign into Confluence in order to edit or leave a comment.Lastly, if you have a work item you'd like to propose but aren't comfortable using the wiki editor, enter it in the comments at the bottom of the page.
(Working document of this work plan in Google Doc)
Active 2024 Work Plan Items
TAC24-1: Federation Proxies Working Group
Description
This TAC chartered working group is a follow-up to the 2023 SP Middlethings Discovery work: InCommon Steering endorsed the creation of a Federation Proxies WG to capture action items/recommendations to better support Federation Proxies in InCommon.
Federation Proxy WG Wiki: https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/display/inctac/fpwg
Proposed By
Keith Wessel; Derek Eiler
Format, Requirements, Duration
This is a TAC Sponsored Working group. Derek Eiler is the TAC champion/liaison to the group.
The work is expected to take place between January and July 2024.
+1’s
- Albert Wu
- David Walker
- Mark Rank
- Matthew X. Economou
- Grady Bailey
- Andy Morgan
- The working group also gathered multiple community volunteers following the 2023 TechEx presentation.
Notes
None.
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TAC24-2: Access Entity Category + SAML2Int Deployment
Description
This work item continues the work of the 2023 * Access Entity Category Deployment Guidance group. In particular, the group should develop deployment and migration guidance for adopting SAML Subject Identifiers (subject-id, pairwise-id) across the InCommon community. Adoption of this ID pair is a requirement from both * Access entity categories and SAML Deployment Profile.
Proposed By
Albert Wu
Format, Requirements, Duration
Ideally, this is a TAC-sponsored working group. A less formal “subgroup” will also work as long as the output is formally reviewed by the community.
Duration: January - June 2024
+1’s
- Joanne Boomer
- Steven Premeau
- Andy Morgan
- Björn Mattsson
- Grady Bailey
Notes
None
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TAC24-3: Federation Testing Working Group
Description
- Explore current good federation practices beyond the minimums set by Baseline Expectations.
- Draft ratings guides for SPs and IdPs (in that order) with an emphasis on remote, automatic assessment.
- Prototype a “Federation Readiness Check” IdP in collaboration with InCommon Operations.
Proposed By
Matthew X. Economou
Format, Requirements, Duration
This is a TAC-sponsored Working Group;
Resources:
InCommon Operations—Albert Wu’s “napkin sketch” would require federation technical staff to deploy, configure, maintain, and support one or more test IdPs for use by prospective SPs during the participant onboarding process (and maybe after).
RDCT Internship Program—Matthew Economou has offered to contribute developer time (up to 10 hours per week, ending in June 2024) towards developing prototype ratings guides
+1’s
- Jeffrey Crawford
- Derek Eiler
- Grady Bailey
Notes
None.
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“On Deck” and “Monitor” Work Items
These items are candidate TAC work plan items or items TAC will monitor, track, observe, participate, and react when appropriate. TAC will review each and schedule them to start as active work plan items complete in 2024.
Work Items | Description | +1’s | Comment |
TAC24-3 | Quantum-Resistant Cryptography | David Walker Derek Eiler | |
TAC24-4 | Device security approach in federations (aka zero trust) | Jeffrey Crawford | |
TAC24-5 | HECVAT review/coordination | A “monitor” item; TAC is the designated party to review HECVAT updates and assess impact relative to InCommon | |
TAC24-6 | Browser Changes | A “monitor” item; TAC to track developments in this area (REFEDS, CACTI, etc) and assess impact relative to InCommon | |
TAC24-7 | Future of Federation and Digital Wallets | A “monitor” item; TAC to track developments in this area (REFEDS, CACTI, etc) and assess impact relative to InCommon |