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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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It's Thanksgiving weekend in the US and I do hope that the members of the Kantara family there have rested, eaten well, and given thanks to friends, family and loved ones – perhaps also done some shopping on Friday if real bargains could be found (wink). 

Appropriately, I want to begin this month's blog by giving thanks to the dedicated band of member and non-member participant volunteers who take time that they often don't have, to contribute their expertise and experience to:

  • participate in Kantara's working groups,
  • participate on Kantara’s main Board and Assurance Review Board meetings,
  • represent Kantara at conferences and on panels,
  • support Kantara in internal corporate meetings, and
  • champion Kantara at external industry/community meetings.

Thank you all. You know who you are because there are not so many (wink). I also want to thank Kantara staff too without whom you would not have meetings and reports, analysis and recommendations, reminders and eBallots, member renewals and surveys, Tweets and newsletters, invoices and payments, updated and secure websites and wikis, and much much more. Thank you so much Ruth, Oliver, Armin and Chris. Thank you also Bella, Megan, Stephanie, Rob, Michael, Rebecca, Darya and Bob at our management company Virtual Inc (wink). 

November was less intense for your Executive Director. But, nonetheless, it was busy and exciting as the 2020 strategic and tactical plans for your Kantara take real shape and form. 2019 has seen us celebrate Kantara's 10 years of accomplishments as we developed new specifications, implemented our KIPI R&D program and expanded our Identity Assurance program for third party conformity assessed assurance. Our public presentations carry the straplines 'Ethics and Conformance Trust Marked' and 'Nurture, Develop, Operate - that's what we do' to describe the essence of Kantara's 'raison d'etre' that I hope each and every contributing volunteer member and non-member participant identifies with. Kantara 2020 portends to be a game-changing year as your organization breaks new ground in our industry delivering a value proposition second to none. Of course it's only going to improve value of those organizations and individual contributors that seize the opportunities and ride the waves. Pay attention if you are in 'passively monitoring Kantara mode' on a working group or in a holding pattern for “maybe”, “might be”, “could be” membership and program participation. 2020 is the year for you to get off the fence and fully join your industry association. 'Just do it'.  

The first week of November saw Kantara double dating conferences in Europe - Whitehall Media's IDM conference in London tangling with Day 1 of EEMA's legendary ISSE 2 day conference in Brussels. In London I thought it appropriate to speak on the controversial topic of contrasting government IDM programmes given Kantara's significant exposure to them and the challenges that Gov.UK Verify is currently facing. While it was edgy in some places, I was happy to get good post-presentation feedback as well as interest in joining Kantara.

After a video interview and quick bite of lunch, I was heading to St Pancras and the Eurostar to Brussels to pick up the tail-end of Day 1 networking hour. I was joined by @NixuTigerTeam's @MartinSandren and @KantarNews staff Ruth Puente presenting the 2nd call for NGI_Trust grant funding which closed over the weekend. @Ubisecure 's @osantolalla had prepared a new video of the Consent Receipt which dovetailed beautifully into Martin's presentation on external identities in the enterprise. His presentation looked at the IS06 professional certification attribute exchange service in Sweden and Finland and, using a crane driver as an example, showed how the attributes of the lift-weight of the crane can be connected to the professional certification attributes of the crane driver. How did Consent Receipts come into the picture you ask? Dave Birch initiated an interesting discussion from the floor, on the notion of extending the Consent Receipt to IoT use cases. ISSE is one of my favourite conferences for the sheer brilliance of the speakers.

After a week off the road and rail (and my highly anticipated Blackpool meeting postponed till December), I was in the air and heading to Washington DC, the first stop of my two city tour in the US Northeast in the third week of November. It was great to catch up with @Experian_US, @KUMA_LLC, @CapitalOne, @EasyDynamics, the two DC based members of Kantara's mission-critical Assurance Review Board, Dan Dreyfus and liaison partners @FDXOrg and @SAFEBioPharma.  It was also great to catch up with the Kantara-facing representatives of all these organizations as we shape the plans for next year. I finished the week in Burlington (not Montpelier as previously advised) at a meeting with the Vermont Attorney General's Office supported by Leadership Council Chair Andrew Hughes and hugely supportive member, Austin based start-up @TransmuteNews. Kantara's personal-agency enhancing specifications, now with wide adoption, have caught the attention of these state-leading Vermonters who are interested in tools to improve their consumer data protection and digital service provider best practice. It was a fascinating discussion and a great honour since an industry organization rarely gets to sit across the table with regulators and policy creators. I'll share more as it plays out.  Thank you Gravel & Shea, the firm that had a large hand in drafting the ground-breaking PIPC Act and a regular participants on the UMA working group, for so graciously hosting us.   

It's also great to welcome new corporate member Easy Dynamics Corporation, the DC based consultancy with an enviable reputation that includes key federal agencies amongst its clients. Also new individual contributor member Yusuf Khan from Dubai. And a big welcome back to long-time contributor and community supporter Gluu.   

Enjoy the rest of Thanksgiving if you celebrate it and hold tight for the end-of-year ride. May it be stressless and smooth.     

Kind Regards,I’m writing this as we begin to put the memories of holidays and celebrations to one side and prepare to progress those resolutions – both recent and long held – as we commence a new year and indeed a new decade.

This is very much the case for Kantara as we put our 10th Anniversary celebrations behind us and look forward to our 11th year of serving you, our members and supporters that comprise the global digital identity and privacy communities.   

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.     

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. 

The Consent and Information Sharing Work Group has announced its intention to wind up and launch the Information Sharing Interoperability Work Group with a broader scope to enable more projects to be worked on, such is the interest being generated by Kantara’s Consent Receipt. Join the ISI-WG here.

The Federation Interoperability Working Group is about to release a minor .1 revision of its SAML V2.0 Implementation Profile for Federation Interoperability while also having its Deployment Profile companion out for 45 day IPR review and public comment  

The closing of NGI_Trust’s 2nd call for proposals has kept Kantara Europe busy as it prepares reviews. Some 90 proposals were received, 30 of which have to be evaluated by its small team by January 15th.   

Remaining in Europe, we topped off an exciting year of additional strategic partnerships with a liaison with the newly formed UK based Arena for Data Protection Professionals (ADPP) this month. These folks really like Kantara’s assets in this domain and seek further collaboration.  Kantara members in good standing get an immediate benefit with a 50% discount on ADPP membership £75 down from £150 in 2020. Please Contact Us for the code.

And last but most certainly not least, I am delighted to announce that Andi Hindle – Kantara member & UMA WG aficionado, Identiverse content chair, subject matter identity expert and all-round good guy – is our 6th staff contractor. He takes up the new role of Kantara’s UK Ambassador to progress Kantara’s footprint in the UK, complementing Chris Healy in a similar position in Washington DC. You can contact him on andi at kantarainitiative dot org or Contact Us.

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous New Year and new decade.

Cheers!

Colin

Around the Houses:

Marketing:

Program, Work Group and Discussion Group Updates:

  • You can always keep up with the latest news from the Work and Discussion Groups directly on the Leadership Council's Blog. See the list of public groups here.

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  • Not sure where to find things? Membership Bella, Ruth, Armin, Oliver, Chris, Andi and myself are only too willing to assist.  Contact them here.

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