InCommon Steering Committee Minutes - November 6, 2017

Attending: Celeste Schwartz, Michael Gettes, Melissa Woo, Ted Hanss, Dennis Cromwell, Klara Jelinkova, Sean Reynolds, Marty Ringle, Michele Norin, Ann West, Dave Vernon

With: Brett Bieber, Mark Scheible, Dean Woodbeck, Steve Zoppi

Action Items

(AI) Add agenda item for December meeting to vote on the AAC name change and charter change.

(AI) Sean will be sending a letter to the community soliciting nominations.

October Minutes

Minutes from October 9 approved via the wiki.

AAC Charter and Name Change

Brett shared proposed changes for the AAC.

Name change - “Assurance” is associated with the assurance levels and the work has progressed into other areas. Proposed name: “Community Trust and Assurance Board” 

Membership adjustment - Change the membership to reflect the changes in the charter and represent all of the community.  

Large and small Universities and Collegesd
Research and scholarly communities
Large and small commercial service providers 
IT and IT Security strategic leadership 
IAM and Information Security operations 
Internal Audit 
InCommon Staff

Duties - Has been heavily focused on the Assurance program. Proposed revision: 

Shepherd community consensus on trust and assurance related issues. 
Review trust and assurance related disputes between InCommon Federation participants. Liaise with international federations to address related disputes. 
Provide leadership and oversight of InCommon’s trust and assurance programs and initiatives. Identify and engage in opportunities to develop new initiatives and assurance profiles to enhance trust and assurance for InCommon, its participants, and other Research and Education federations. 
Perform identified functions supporting InCommon’s trust and assurance programs. 
Coordinate with the InCommon Steering Committee and other groups as directed or reasonable.

The AAC proposes a community consultation for the changes and placing this on the Decmeber Steering agenda for approval. This will formally add responsibility to Baseline Expectations to the renamed AAC, allow that work to continue on schedule, and also allow for the recruitment of new members. There are also proposed changes to the Participation Agreement and FOPP coming within the next few weeks.

This is part of a two-phase approach - first to get the AAC charter changed and get the right people involved, and later to determine the direction for the assurance program and the FICAM program.

There was discussion about whether the reconstituted AAC should be part of the Trust and Identity governance model, rather than specific to InCommon. The recommendation is that currently the best fit is with InCommon, but that this question be included in a coming review of the overall Trust and Identity governance model. The short-term goal if to have the AAC changes adopted so work can continue on Baseline Expectations.

The Steering consensus is to support in principle the name and charter change, with a vote scheduled for December.

InCommon Demographics and Nominations

There was discussion about the demographics of InCommon participants and how to consider that as part of the nominating process for new Steering members. The demographics show smaller schools and smaller companies comprising a high percentage of participants.

There was also discussion about whether to add an advisor from a Sponsored Partner as a non-voting member on a year-to-year basis, as is currently the case with the research advisor. The consensus is to do so.

There was consensus to move the one-year non-voting research advisor position to a full three-year voting member position.

(AI) Sean will be sending a letter to the community soliciting nominations.

TechEx Summary

Ann provided some information about TechEx attendance and some of the results from the Trust/Identity survey/evaluation of TechEx

Trust and Identity attendees: 224 this year vs. 174 last year.
REFEDS attendees - 87
67% of attendees have been in IAM for at least five years
44% of attendees had not attended an ACAMP before
75% said ACAMP was valuable
68% recommended including the extended-time track sessions (110 minutes) next year

Ann also summarized some trends and information gleaned:

A federation-savvy group from the international community is updating a paper on federated IdM for research - reviewing the landscaping and noting the gaps.  
In general, there is excitement about where Trust and Identity is headed.
There is a sense the community members have a good understanding of the value of InCommon, but also understand that there are gaps that need to be addressed .
There is confusion about branding regarding how the pieces fit together (Trust and Identity, InCommon, TIER, Intenret2) .
There is interested in a certification program for SPs - this will be a big challenge .
There is a need for clear communications around Baseline Expectations .
Steering has an interest in a summary of the Monday lunchtime feedback session

Shibboleth Consortium Update

As discussed last month, the Shibboleth Consortium is considering models for providing support only to paying members. Kevin floated the concept of InCommon providing funds that would cover all InCommon participants that use Shibboleth. The Consortium is discussing this and other models, but has not made a decision.