Greetings folks
This is the running update from Kantara Initiative, Inc's Executive Director. Have questions or comments? Suggest some added information or edits? Contact the ED colin@kantarainitiative.org
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Last week at the Cloud Identity Summit in New Orleans, on Tuesday June 7th in fact, I reached a personal milestone. It signalled my first 100 days in the role. What a ride!
It's been both an honor and a pleasure to oversee Kantara build velocity and momentum across all its initiatives - both new ones like ID Pro and Blockchain Smart Contracts as well as more established ones like UMA and Consent Receipt. It is not going unnoticed. The community is reacting and positioning in a very positive way. More announcements are coming that will bring greater value to members and participants alike.
Our transition is nearing completion, with only a handful of members still to confirm their intentions with their members dues still held by IEEE-ISTO, and our application lodged with the IRS for confirThermed non profit status. The organization is in good financial health, with membership and GPA sign ups on the rise, no doubt helped by he supporting Marcomms.
I am writing this as we complete two very successful conference appearances, first at IIW at the end of April and then the European Identity Conference in Munich last week. UMA's strong roots inside Kantara are being increasingly supported by the Consent Receipt and User Submitted Terms work being led by Mark Lizar, John Wunderlich, Iain Henderson and Mary Hodder, that was such a feature at IIW. As this work takes shape, Kantara's proud to be part of the collaborative effort alongside Customer Commons and Project VRM, to put the customer back in control of their data, and the part that Consent Receipt plays in achieving that shared goal.
Last week's EIC has often been the event that Kantara has used to launch something new, and this year was no exception. Ian Glazer's call for the professionalization of the identity industry in his keynote just before the EIC Awards ceremony last Wednesday night capped off a quite incredible 48 hours of team effort operationalize that notion and Kantara as the initial home, while folks discuss what they want from 'ID Pro' (attribution Andrew Hughes for that short name) and where they want it. Pledge your support and sign up here Membership and participation is up, as are program applications for Identity Assurance and KIPI (Kantara Identity & Privacy Incubator) - our new name for the R&D funding program. A big shout out to Ken Dagg in Canada for that re-naming suggestion!
Our Workshop at the Cloud Identity Summit was very well attended. Folks seem to enjoy our fluid agenda with multiple speakers even if the logistics sometimes challenge us, as we showcase our highly respected membership to others new to the space. When I asked for a 'hands up' as to who was new to Kantara, around two thirds of the room put their hand up. So inspiring! LC Chair Andrew Hughes' idea of the 'Team Kantara' breakfast table was a huge hit. New members, prospective members, longstanding members, friends, spouses, children - they all came!
Have you pledged your support and signed up here for ID Pro? Please do! Around 270 folks from 29 countries already have: https://kantarainitiative.org/digital_identity_professional/
As we look ahead further into May we have the Digital Contracts, Identities and Blockchain workshop at MIT Media Labs in Cambridge MA, coming up May 23-24 (see details below) where Kantara's latest Discussion Group, Smart Contracts and Blockchain, makes its debut. And in 3 weeks' time, the Cloud Identity Summit takes place in New Orleans where Kantara will again host a pre-conference workshop.
So you can see it's another busy month or so ahead before we look forward to holidays in the northern hemisphere. Thank you again for your efforts to support your fellow members and the organization as a whole. An organization is nothing without its members.
Cheers
Colin
Liaisons:
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Not a member and reading this? Join us and your friends & colleagues from around the world. Take a look at the member menu here and complete the online form. Yes, we do take credit cards 
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Thank you again for your support. Kantara is nothing without its volunteer members. Look out for news on how we can recognize your efforts in the next few months.
Cheers
Colin
Around the House:
Liaisons:
- ISO/ITU-T: Nothing ground breaking to report here, but remember a significant Kantara member-only benefit is access to the Kantara's Category C liaison with ISO/IEC JTC1 SC27 Working Group 5 (Identity and Privacy). This means you can review and comment on WG5's standard drafts. Of particular interest is ISO 29184, Guidelines for online privacy notices and consent along with reviews of 29115 Entity Authentication Assurance, and 24760-1 A framework for Identity Management.Two further liaisons remain in progress, with an announcement expected in June co-edited by our own Kantara Board member Nat Sakimura.
- Kantara's long standing Liaison with IDESG that sees significant cross membership, has been active these past weeks as the mapping between the Kantara Identity Assurance Framework and the Identity Ecosystem Framework (IDEF) Registry for folks self attesting their compliance, was completed and launched at the Cloud Identity Summit.
- Further liaisons are progressing, with announcements expected soon.
New Activities:
- I've mentioned the ID Pro initiative and Blockchain Smart Contracts above, but in addition we continue to get strong interest with both of these are enjoying sign-ups in the hundreds. And in Kantara's R&D funding program, in partnership with Rutgers university, NJ. Another proposal is showing promise, with 4 more in preparation and a further 5 from IIW and EIC still yet to materialize. Thanks to the folks who are preparing further project submissions. We look forward to them.KIPI, we have another proposal through the first gate, with several more in preparation. Keep 'em coming!
New Members:
- Kantara welcomes the other member from Australia that was in process last month. That organization is the Digital Transformation Office of the Australian Government. Amongst several other notable organizations we welcome back Neustar, Inc.Brian Shimek and Joanne Cooper as new members.
Marketing:
- We have a self standing banner, flyers and revised slide deck for use in Kantara supported eventsFolks really love our snazzy graphics on our website sliders, so kudos to our web guru Oliver and Virtual's Marketing team. They were also responsible for the 'I signed the pledge' badge ribbons and the device case stickers we gave away at Cloud Identity Summit. If you have more ideas please contact the ED.
Work Group and Discussion Group Updates:
- CIS WG: Consent Receipt nearly ready for prime time at its launch at CIS in June.OTTO WG: Really interesting and much needed inter-federation work continues for OAuth and SAML communities The Consent Receipt spec has undergone more surgery and tracking well towards its release later in the year.
- Identity Assurance WG: An ad hoc call schedule has been set up to review and comment on the new draft 800-63-3. Rock up to contribute and learn.
- Smart Contracts and Blockchain DG: This ground breaking working work takes some elements of the Common Accord development, together with Distributed Ledger Technology to explore a step-change in the way online services contracts might be structured.
Events:
- Monday, May 23 Tuesday, May 24, 2016, MIT Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02139. Digital Contracts, Identities and Blockchain workshop
- Monday, June 6th Workshop, Cloud Identity Summit, Marriott, New Orleans: OTTO, UMA, Consent Receipt, CCICADA R&D Funding Performers, on the slate to speak, along with cameo appearances from the many Kantara members sepaking.You can find the events we hope to see you at here on the events page on the website.