Hello everyone
This is the running update from the Executive Director. Have questions or comments? Suggest some added information or edits? Contact Colin at kantarainitiative dot org.
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For me, it has been interesting to observe how different organizations in our industry have approached this period. For years now, we have raised awareness of just how critical appropriately applied digital identity is to much of our digital lives - strong and secure when the identity-related risk in the use case calls for it, less so when it is not. Same with privacy - having agency over our personal data volunteered by us or collected by others. Different uses cases call for different approaches, brought into sharp focus right now when trust in one's government authorities, in one's digital platforms, in the developer community is pivotal to our adoption of apps for contact tracing, for test validation and so on. The role that industry organizations play is important, but it is not all about them, tempting as it is, to draw in attention by binding to the issue of the day. You'll note that Kantara has not played that game. The reason it exists is because its members want it to exist. Kantara has called out the great work its members are doing in various aspects of the COVID crisis, just as it calls out the great work its members are doing in other aspects of the digital economy at any other time. Kantara is blessed with some of the most thought-leading and innovative organizations and individuals in our space on the planet. Kantara amplifies and showcases those great works, because it really is all about them.
ItAnd as I said last month, it's all about 'playing it forward, and Kantara itself is doing just that. These are difficult times, not only for people but also for organizations of all sizes - especially new and small ones. While too early to announce here, Kantara is helping out another non-profit with a project it was 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. ' for the long haul and not just sound bites on the issue of the day. '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. This project exemplifies that and more broadly beyond the digital ecosystem.
For me, the reality of the crisis began to hit home at Connect:ID in Washington DC March 11-12. 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 with a presentation comparing common law Government digital Identity programs around the world. Next up 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 from 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, brilliantly supported by member Easy Dynamics Corporation's Sarah Chu to help Kantara DC Ambassador Chris and we had further collaboration from KIPI R&D Program performer members Exponent and MDAV/ValidIDy. The next day, we were on stage in Europe too where Kantara's Director of Assurance Operations Ruth Puente, Conference Chaired the Whitehall Media's IDM Europe one day conference at the Steigenberger Airport hotel in Frankfurt Judging by the Twitter fall, this worked out wonderfully for all. We won't have conferences for a while yet, so Kantara was both grateful and fortunate to feature in the final two identity conferences for a while to come.
Talking of R&D, Tallinn Estonia-based Kantara Europe is gearing up promotion of the NGI TRUST 3rd and Final call https://wiki.geant.org/display/NGITrust/3rd+Open+Call+NGI_TRUST which is now open and closes barely a month away on May 4th. Please consider the following; if you have a great idea but not located in the EU, ensure you have an EU based partner to front it for you, even if you are based in the UK); be aware that we expect more focus to be placed on Type 2 and Type 3 proposals that really are capable of mass consumer adoption; and perhaps not surprisingly, current circumstances may engender greater attraction to proposals including use cases applicable to epidemiology.
Meanwhile, the work continues unabated, if anything, even busier. The Assurance Review Board has just accredited a new assessor, Slandala, that I mentioned joined last month which is just in time as we have additional service providers preparing for pre-assessment as they seek the coveted We continue with preparing additional Assessment Criteria for accredited Assessors to assess service providers seeking the 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 to encompass NIST 800-63-3C (Federation Assurance Levels) continues in the Identity Assurance Work Group, alongside our support of Canadian non-profit DIACC on the review-and-comment process of the revised drafts of the Pan-Canadian Trust FrameworkAssertion Level 2) and following that, all of Level 3 - IAL3, AAL3 and FAL3. 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, so please participate and contribute. UMA-WGs doubling down on conformance and interop testing but join right right now to see Thursday's presentation on its UMA extension work from member Identos. The FIRE-WG has two interesting papers in play that are receiving good vibes from the Healthcare sector with some context shown here.
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