Hello everyone
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It's all about 'playing it forward, and Kantara itself is doing just that. These are difficult times for organizations of all sizes but especially for new and small ones. While too early to announce here, Kantara is helping out another non-profit with a project they were looking for the right type of sponsorship for, to undertake a project with very humanistic values at its heart, the sponsorship in part paying for the use of Kantara's platform to bring it to life. Things being as they are, Kantara is playing it forward because important as the money is to Kantara, more important is the project. 'Nurture, Develop, Operate - that's what we do' is Kantara's strapline. We are holding true to our ethics and ethos of low barriers to community participation for the common good of the digital ecosystem and through this project even more broadly.
For me, the reality of the crisis began to hit home at Connect:ID in Washington DC March 11-12 is up next in the US and I hope that it will not be unduly affected - both for myself and the many Kantara members participating. I will be supporting the conference organizers by moderating the Wednesday morning Identity track presentations and panel through till lunchtime. If you are attending, please do use Kantara's booth #210 as a base and convening point. Not in DC for Connect:ID because you're in Europe? Not to worry. . We never got further than March 11 as the Convention Center management closed us down at the direction of the DC Health authorities. But fortunately our time at the podium was straight after the opening Keynotes. I hastily replaced the two speakers who withdrew, one each from the UK Government and Mastercard. After taking the opportunity to announce that Idemia's Matt Thompson had taken the Presidency over from ForgeRock's Allan Foster after seven years of service, I curtain-raised the panel next up, with a presentation comparing common law Government digital Identity programs around the world. It was a fantastic public-private sector extended-time panel, comprising representatives from the OMB, GSA, Lexis Nexis, Better Identity Coalition and our own new Board member organization, Idemia. Highly informative with great questions form the floor, we entertained folks till lunchtime, after which the closure of the conference was announced. There was plenty of traffic to Kantara's booth #210 and brilliantly supported by member Easy Dynamics Corporation's Sarah Chu to help Kantara DC Ambassador Chris with further collaboration from KIPI R&D Program performer members Exponent and MDAV/ValidIDy. We were on stage in Europe too where Kantara's Director of Assurance Operations is Conference Chair for Ruth Puente, Conference Chaired the Whitehall Media's IDM Europe one day conference at the Steigenberger Airport hotel in Frankfurt, so please make your way there and participate. While on the subject of Conferences, the members email last week giving away one pass each to Connect:ID and KNOW Identity on a first come first served basis went to Kantara member Easy Dynamics Corporation's Sarah Chu and JJ Harkema. The final week of February saw me catching up on Kantara's other activities. Top of that list is the development of Judging by the Twitter fall, this worked out incredibly well for all. We won't have conferences for a while yet, so we were both grateful and fortunate to feature in the final two identity conferences for a while to come.
Meanwhile, work continues unabated at Kantara, if anything, even busier. The Assurance Review Board has just accredited a new assessor, Slandala, which is just in time as we have additional service providers preparing for pre-assessment as they seek the coveted Kantara Trust Mark for NIST 800-63-3 at IAL2 and AAL2. Thanks to ID.me's sponsorship of an editor, development continues on the Service Assessment Criteria for NIST 800-63-3C (Federation Assurance Levels) being undertaken continues in the Identity Assurance Work Group, the editing resource generously sponsored by Kantara member ID.me. It is members like ID.me that support the organization with membership as well as sponsorship of vital work, make Kantara the community that it is, Thank you ID.me! Close behind comes the great efforts of the Healthcare Identity Assurance Work Group’s near final draft Report entitled 'Design goals for a Healthcare identity environment architecture'. Consent Receipt topped the February downloads again with 125 downloads, followed by the UMA specifications and the UMA Business Model.alongside our support of Canadian non-profit DIACC on the review-and-comment process of the revised drafts of the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework. The ISI-Work Group has its first 3 projects in the starting blocks and attracting global participation, such is the interest in the future shape and form of the Kantara Consent Receipt specification and the emerging draft retro-fit framework underpinning it. UMA is doubling down on conformance and interop testing while the FIRE-WG
I emailed selected members that I thought might be interested in opening a Work Group on mDL (Mobile Drivers Licence) - not so much for its driving relationships but for its use as a mobile identification tool. We have been assisting the Secure Technology Alliance (STA) with the development of a white paper which will be released later this month, and given Kantara's reputation, and credibility, in operating Trust Frameworks, the emerging idea is that the time is right to begin drawing on this largely blank canvas that is the mDL ecosystem today. If you are reading this, and have interest to sponsor projects in a possible mDL work group please Contact Us.
We welcomed two new North American based members to the Kantara community during February - The Slandala Company, joining Kantara to engage in the Identity Assurance Trust Framework program and Mike Schmidt an individual contributor with special interest in the next phase of development of the Consent Receipt. A big thank you and shout-out to renewing members too - a triumvirate from Europe comprising Seadot AB and SUNET from Sweden, Nixu from the Netherlands as well as Individual Contributors Janelle Allen, John Wunderlich and Stephen Hutchinson. Thank you all!
Kantara's staff are spread across the world - Italy, Spain, the UK, Argentina and the US. We are all in varied forms of lockdown but we remain safe, well and serving you every day. Please do the same so that we can continue to help deliver the great work that you do. Whether in good times and in bad times, we face our challenges together and we work through them together. This very difficult time is no different. But the tide will eventually turn and Kantara's global community will be the stronger and wiser to embrace the good times that lie in the far distance.
Onwards!
Kind regards
Colin
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