Greetings folks
This is the running update from the Executive Director. Have questions or comments? Suggest some added information or edits? Contact the ED colin at kantarainitiative dot org.
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February has seen an unprecedented level of downloads from our from our Reports and Recommendations web repository. Downloads are more than double year on year, primarily due to the strong reporting of our Blockchain Smart Contracts Report from mainstream media. While you heard it first several months ago here and by following @kantaranews on Twitter, we re-ran the story again early in February. In just a 3 day period during the month we hit 118 downloads. Good download numbers were posted by UMA 2.0 and Consent Receipt as well, since these tools help with GDPR compliance. With enforcement just over 3 months away, organizations the world over that have digital relationships with EU citizens are looking for products and services that help them meet the deadline. February has been a great month for new memberships too, and we have pleasure in welcoming DataFund from Denmark, Reliable Identities from the US and Sphere Identity from New Zealand.
We started the first full week in February, the month at the TIIME workshop in Vienna. Kantara truly values its engagement with the Higher Ed community culminating in this event because it is the only non-profit in the digital identity space to sustain such a relationship that results in fantastic knowledge-share which in turn draws others to Kantara who are eager to soak up those riches. That aside, for many attendees the highlight was the workshop dinner held under the dome in the renowned Natural History Museum in Vienna. Unforgettable. Later in the month, EEMA - Kantara's most active European liaison - hosted me in Brussels at its members Fireside, on a topic close to us all - the future of identity and trust. 3 speakers graced us with their perspectives, with the stand-out presenter for me being Bart Preneel from Leuven University - a thought provoking premise that security and privacy is turning the full circle to be better maintained and assured in future on local devices, rather than cloud based networked services. We also opened our 2018 press release salvo with more Trust Framework news, this time announcing the MOU between the US IDESG and Kantara (its first and most active liaison partner) whereby Kantara approved and Trust Marked identity and credential service providers are
'pre-checked' for the majority of IDESG's baseline requirements of its IDentity Ecosystem Framework, thereby adding extra benefits to being approved under the Kantara Trust Framework 'classic' scheme. See the press release here. The early months of the year give me a great opportunity to acknowledge and thank select member organizations for their support as I undertake my semi-annual round of 1:1 calls with Directors and Trust Marked Service Providers and Assessors. These folks provide much of the fuel for the monetized engine room of the organization that allows many of you reading this to enjoy the benefits of low barriers to participation in Kantara's working groups and discussion groups, either through their Directors dues or support of Kantara's 'raison d'etre' - the Trust Framework Operations program. As the only global 'non play to play' consortium in our industry in support of our ethics based and mission-led culture, we should remember just how hard a business model it is to operate - one that Kantara's contemporaries don't even try - and without the Directors, Members, Sponsors and Trust Framework participants stepping up to the plate, Kantara would not exist. It's fitting then that in OWI's recent 'top 100 Influencers in Identity', 14 of them (or organizations employing them) were Kantara members. See them here in Kantara's own press release.
Meanwhile, with the generous support of ID.me for supplying editing resources, Kantara is nearly ready to release the Service Assessment Criteria for the NIST SP 800-63-3 Guidelines for Digital Identity, for identity & credential service providers whose solutions are utilized by relying parties online. Kantara is extending the scope of Kantara's Trust Framework Operations Program with this foundational piece of new work. As you browse the new content on that link, please take our Survey regarding your current or planned compliance with Identity Management related standards. Help us to help you!
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You can always find us online: https://twitter.com/KantaraNews and https://twitter.com/UMAWG and https://twitter.com/KantaraCISWG.
- Miss something? See our press releases here.
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Program, Work Group and Discussion Group Updates:
Wednesday 21st February: first work-focussed meeting of the Consent Management Systems best practice WG.
You can always keep up with the latest news from the Work Group and Discussion Groups directly off the Leadership Council's Blog.
- Join them here
- Kantara's Consent Receipt v1.1 has completed its public review and the working group are discussion your submitted comments.
@UMAWG has released the UMA 2.0 specifications into formal publication. Kantara's UMA protocol is ranked 2nd in Kuppinger Cole's top 10 trends for 2018. And 1st on Kuppinger Cole's list? None other than Kantara's Consent Receipt.
See all of our Specifications, Recommendations and Reports here and awaiting your download from our Reports and Recommendations web repository.
As always, if you have a query or question, staff are only too willing to assist. Contact them via email.
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