InCommon Steering Committee Meeting - April 6-7, 2014 - Denver, Colorado

Minutes

Attending: Susan Kelley, Michael Gettes, Chris Holmes, Dennis Cromwell, Melissa Woo, Joel Cooper, Mark Crase, Klara Jelinkova, Jack Suess, Bill Yock, Steve Zoppi, Dave Vernon, Ken Klingenstein, Steve Carmody

With: John Krienke, Shel Waggener, Dean Woodbeck (scribe)

RUCC Meeting

Klara reported on a presentation to the RUCC (Research University CIO Conclave) concerning the new trust and identity concept. They were generally supportive and are interested in a more-detailed plan.

Shel Waggoner Briefing

Shel briefed Steering on a number of items – a copy of his slides are attached to the meeting wiki page.

Trust and Identity is moving toward a design where the individual is the focus, not the enterprise, and attributes will become more and more important.

Governance – Steering is being formally asked to become the governing group for all of Trust and Identity. This will need to be communicated to the community.

Architecture – This has been done on a community level with MACE at the center, but development has been fragmented. Steve Zoppi will lead the effort for service integration, including mapping and coordinating software development. One objective is to develop an integrated suite ultimately leading to Identity as a Service. It will be important to be structured and professional in deploying these services.

Campus – As we continue to identify and refine standards, there will be more-specific requirements for participation in the federation, particularly concerning attributes. There will be an increased need to communicate these standards and requirements, including keeping CIOs informed. In addition, we need to provide CIOs with the information they need to talk to their campus stakeholders and business owners.

Trust and Identity in Education and Research (TIER) is the number one item on Net+ priorities presented to the Internet2 board, with the objective of delivering $500 million in annual value to Internet2 members. Trust and Identity will be an integral part of Net+, campuses will need to be Net+ ready, and we need to provide requirements to both campuses and Net+ service providers.

As the Net+ Program Advisory Group (PAG), Steering will be asked to oversee a portfolio for all TIER services and advise on sizing the portfolio in each area. This oversight will include:

• TIER architecture/technology roadmap
• Supporting community outreach and training to move many campuses into TIER, with an initial goal of 200 campuses

Discussion summary:

• there will likely be a need to add members to Steering, with a variety of expertise
• there will likely be a need for additional subcommittees
• the Program Subcommittee has developed 2014 priorities specifically as InCommon Steering; the 2015 priorities will be more broadly based on Trust and Identity

Program Subcommittee Report – John O’Keefe

• The subcommittee developed a broad list of objectives based on the seven priorities initially developed by the InCommon Technical Advisory Group and adopted by Steering
• The subcommittee developed a list of InCommon baseline activities, projects, and programs
• The subcommittee is working to understand the capacity of InCommon – what is discretionary and what is required
• Because of the sheer size of the list of objectives, projects, and programs, the subcommittee recommends focusing on substantially advancing Objective 2: “Increasing the Value of InCommon Participation,” along with tactics for a limited number of items supporting the other objectives
• The subcommittee will document a priority-setting process for use in future years
• The subcommittee will begin working on the 2015 priorities (based on the broader scope of Trust and Identity)

Steering endorsed the strategic priorities document and the recommendations of the Program Subcommittee. The External Relations and Governance Subcommittee was asked to begin considering the communications and outreach needs that will support these recommendations.

Discussion points:

• When thinking about the expanded portfolio, consider how subcommittees will need to be structured
• As we think about 2015, how do we gather these programs and services and deal with them in a meaningful way?
• Given Shel’s presentation, should Steering look at how these services will support the “user in the middle” concept?
• How will Steering come to consensus on these additional responsibilities?

It was agreed that the Program Subcommittee will use the strategic priorities, as applied to Trust and Identity, in developing the 2015 priorities, gathering input from both TAC and the AAC.

eduGAIN

Ken provided an overview of eduGAIN, operated by GEANT, which is essentially a federation of federations that makes interfederation possible. Steering is being asked to approve InCommon signing the eduGAIN declaration, which is the first step in joining eduGAIN. By joining eduGAIN, we can support VOs and the expansion of Net+ services.

After signing the declaration, there will be a number of technical issues to address, including:

• whether participants opt in or opt out
• what it means to ship metadata overseas
• accommodating the European code of conduct and differing privacy requirements
• changes to the Participation Agreement and the Federation Operating Policies and Procedures (FOPP)

It was moved, seconded, and unanimously approved that InCommon join eduGAIN by signing the eduGAIN declaration, provided that all details have been worked out prior to any import or export of entity metadata on behalf of InCommon participants.

Apereo Statement of Intent

There was discussion of signing a statement of intent with Apereo (the combination of Jasig and Sakai) to work together on four foci for collaboration. The discussion was tabled.

Charter and Bylaws

Chris presented the revised charter and bylaws, on behalf of the External Relations and Governance Subcommittee. The revisions are intended to reflect the expanded Steering role within Trust and Identity.

Discussion points:

• Steering needs a document, whether the charter or something else, that spells out the responsibilities related to oversight of Trust and Identity.
• These responsibilities seem to be more extensive than is implied by the term PAG (Program Advisory Group)
• The point of Steering is now to shape the Trust and Identity initiative
• Finances – Under the charter revision, Steering will be advisory in this area, which is OK.
• Under this arrangement, the TAC and the AAC will continue to report up through Steering

Executive Session*

• Steering adjourned to executive session with Shel Waggener