InCommon Steering Committee Meeting Minutes - July 6, 2015

Attending: Melissa Woo, Sean Reynolds, Dave Vernon, Von Welch, Klara Jelinkova, Chris Holmes, Jacob Farmer, Michael Gettes, Pankaj Shah, Dennis Cromwell, Ken Klingenstein, Susan Kelley

With: Ann West, Dean Woodbeck, Shel Waggener

Approval of Minutes

Minutes from the June 6, 2015, meeting were approved via Wisegate.

R&S Updates

• Dave Vernon talked at NYSERNET meeting (most of the CIOs in the state of New York) and all were supportive. Some may need direct follow-up.
• Von talked to SLAC and they are a couple of years away from deploying (and they recently withdrew from InC)
• Steering members were asked to enter status information on the spreadsheet so that it is complete - specifically the LIGO institutions. Once this is done, this item will be removed from the agenda
• (AI) Von will draft an email to sent to LIGO and perhaps GENI to let them know about this effort - they would likely be viewed as very positive

InC Growth and Participant Mix

Ann quickly reviewed a series of slides that starts to show the change in InCommon participants over the last five years. The slides show the growth in sponsored partners (generally smaller companies) and the growth in those at the Level 4 fee level (smaller schools, community colleges). One slide also shows the adoption curve developed a number of years ago, and InCommon seems to have moved to the “early majority” spot on the curve.

There were questions about whether the certificate service will remain with InCommon or move to Net+. Shel responded that it will remain in InCommon because of the way things are set up legally, and it would be very expensive to change.

There was also a question about the number of participants that join for certificates and not necessarily for the federation. (AI) Dean will follow-up with that information.

Steering Membership for 2016

There was discussion about nominations for terms starting in January 2016. Three current Steering members will have completed two terms and will roll off the committee (Mark Crase, John O’Keefe, and Chris Holmes). Two current members have completed one term and are eligible for reappointment (Michael Gettes and Klara Jelinkova)

There was general agreement to consider:

• a CLAC member (talk to John O’Keefe) or similar school
• representatives from institutions in Level 2, 3, and 4 on the fees chart
• consider a representative from a sponsored partner
• perhaps making the research position a permanent voting member
• (AI) Dean will develop a document to use to generate a list of nominees

Strategy and Direction WG

The working group will look at InCommon’s direction for the next 2-3 years, taking into account the changing demographics of InCommon participants, the types of services  and support we need to provide, and our strategies for promoting and expanding federation.

• The WG will also look at the primary audiences and the types of support needed (such as K-12, regionals, others)
• (AI) Ann will draft a strawman for review by the WG
• The charter and LLC conversation is considered complete and will not be part of the WG scope

eduGAIN

The August Steering Committee meeting will be extended to 90-minutes and include a discussion of what will be required as InCommon joins eduGAIN. We have three major documents for community review - the eduGAIN intent paper, the InCommon Participation Agreement, and the Federation Operating Policies and Practices. We need to have an extensive and transparent review and comment process for review.

Identity Provider of Last Resort

The InCommon TAC has defined an “identity provider of last resort” as an important service for research, allowing those from campuses without an IdP to access key services. A TAC working group has developed a requirements list for an IdP of last resort. One such IdP has been identified that could be deployed relatively quickly - UnitedID. The TIER roadmap also includes the need for an IdP of last resort; the idea there was to use the architecture being developed by CommIT.

(AI) InCommon staff will provide Steering with a background paper on this topic.

Next Meeting

The August Meeting will be 90 minutes
Monday, Aug. 3 - 4pm ET / 3 pm CT / 2 pm MT / 1 pm PT