Hello everyone
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2019, Kantara's 10th anniversary year, was the appropriate point in time to brainstorm ideas with the Board and its sub committee the Assurance Review Board, to set in play a series of activities in 2020 that together cement the foundational role that Kantara assumes in the industry. I look forward to sharing more with you when there's more to share.
I do feel proud of what has been achieved in our past 10 years, moreso the last 4 years that I have led Kantara as you’ll appreciate.
Starting with two massive organizational changes at the beginning of 2016 – self incorporation on top of the transition out of IEEE-ISTO - we were faced with a much more competitive landscape for industry associations with an increasingly complex political environment.
4 years later at the beginning of 2020, Kantara’s report card looks like this;
- the scope doubled to incorporate personal data privacy vs the single focus on digital identity that Kantara originally started with,
- the Kantara brand covers 4 entities (Kantara Inc, Kantara Educational Foundation, Kantara Europe & IDESG's assets absorbed into Kantara) vs the single entity at the end of 2015,
- 6 contracted staff vs the original 3 (see below regarding the 6th staff contract that was signed a couple of weeks ago),
- the privacy enhancing consent receipt specification firmly entrenched in the ISO standardization process – the first ever for Kantara and very rare for any industry group,
- the personal agency enhancing UMA specification a fulcrum for OAuth 3.0/XYZ in IETF.
- the 2020 sustaining strategy firmly anchored in conformity assessment and assurance,
- Kantara Europe firmly entrenched in the European Commission’s H2020 R&D funding program,
- …and all the while, maintaining our ‘community commons’ ethics and ethos of low/no barriers to participation.
It’s hard not to feel some sense of accomplishment when 2016-2019 is viewed in these terms, largely thanks to the staff’s utter dedication to the organization often going above and beyond, the ARB’s week-in, week-out volunteering, the relatively small band of supporters as officers in the working groups, the LC and the Board. This year-end and decade-end moment is perfect to briefly reflect on our progress. January saw good progress in the other two Kantara branded entities. In the Kantara Educational Foundation, the Board was strengthened with the arrival of Mary Ellen Condon as an additional Non Executive Director, continuing a role she held at IDESG up until its assets transitioned to Kantara and gives increased continuity with respect to those ex IDESG assets that are in the care of the Foundation. The Foundation was also received its non-profit determination letter from the IRS, a further step towards fulfilling its mission regarding grant-funded and and sponsored education and outreach. In Kantara Initiative Europe, work on evaluating the 2nd call proposals continued unabated through the holiday/New Year period, culminating in a meeting of the consortium partners in Brussels on Friday, January 31st, the last day of the month.
Our working groups were busy right up till the holidays. The new FIRE working group reincarnated from IDESG committees has just released the first draft of a very interesting specification entitled Distributed Identity Assurance 1.0.0 Draft 1 and encourages initial reactions, suggestions and comments from the community. To be clear, this draft is an early version and not a final draft commencing Kantara's formal publication process for its Recommendations and Technical Specifications.
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