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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July is a month where the northern and southern hemispheres are at their extremes. As I sat in my back garden on a hot and sunny summer's day I was reminded by this as a friend posted a picture of Mount Ruapehu in the center of New Zealand's North Island fully laden with snow, ready for the ski season. I had planned a few days off to ski in Austria in early April, but of course it was cancelled as so many of our business or personal plans were, wherever we were in the world. I partially made up for it last week taking a few days off in Munich to be with extended family. It's a beautiful city in a beautiful part of Germany so it was well worth the hassle of the travel that even on this short distance seemed as tiring as a long-haul. Maybe it's breathing in your own air for so long. Masks were mandatory all through the airport, on the plane for the flight, in the arrival airport, on public transport, in shops and anywhere crowded, but the level of compliance was a high and . in out the other end of course. And we came equipped with anti-bacterial gel and wipes, not that we needed them since the airline, all shops, restaurants etc made them readily available so in terms of personal risk, although heightened, it felt manageable at all times. July 2020 may go on record for the highest number of virtual conferences and webinars in a single month in our community. I don't know how it was for you, but together with Identiverse, One World Identity's KNOW, other industry associations and company webinars, I found my calendar often triple booked on some popular hours. It was great to see so many Kantarians presenting and on panels - from Healthcare to mDL to consent to the state of digital identity in the US. Kantara kicked off its own Summer webinar series in July too with the Assurance Program's 'What what does it take to be approved as NIST 800-63-3 conformant?' and and the UMA Working Group's 21st Century Health Information Interoperability + user Control'. Both of these were well presented and well attended. A special thanks to speakers ID.me's Blake Hall, KUMA's Ray Kimble, NIST's David Temoshok, HIE of One's Adrian Gropper and Identos's Alec Laws, wonderfully supported by Staff and in particular Ruth Puente, who helped with both sessions. Summer's not over yet so stand by for other announcements!
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As always the Identity Assurance work group had a full plate of work this month, just narrowly missing its target to have the Service Assessment Criteria for NIST 800-63-3 IAL3, AAL3 and FAL3 working group approved and the Assurance Program itself continues its internal development project to make it even more globally reputable than it already is. Given the criticality of digital identity in the current world crisis, it's perhaps not surprising that we have seen none of the traditional summer vacation slow-down and we look forward to making announcements about CSPs attaining the coveted Kantara Trust Mark later in the year.
Kantara Europe was busy as usual with coaching of existing projects and settling in new projects selected in the final call and working with a large consortium on a new funding bid for 2021, while the Educational Foundation made further progress on its policy framework. In technically challenging circumstances, the Secure Technology Alliance (STA) hosted the 3rd of its 4 Webinars on the Privacy and Trust aspects of a future mDL ecosystem on June 25th, led by Kantara's President Matt Thompson, supported by members John Wunderlich reviewing the mDL standard ISO 18013-5 through a privacy lens and Exponent's Christopher Williams looking at Trust-related aspects in the transaction communication flow. Despite the challenges our folks performed brilliantly. Thank you! While on the subject of webinars, Kantara's own Summer Webinar series is taking shape with the first Webinar announced for
July 15th - what does it take to be approved as NIST 800-63-3 conformant? This has only been open for registration a few days and the quality and quantity of registrants is truly humbling. Stay tuned for other sessions to be announced in coming weeks. Interested to be involved? Please Contact Us.June saw us welcome new corporate member Human Colossus Foundation from Switzerland, new Individual Contributor member Mark King from the UK. Providing your financial support allows Kantara to further its mission and optimize benefits back to you.
June also saw renewals from Organization members Digital Transformation Agency Australian Government, United States Postal Service (USPS) US federal government executive branch, Australian/Belgian personal data specialist Meeco, and the UK personal data software innovator, KnowNow Information. and Individual Contributor member Barry Hieb. Thank you for everything you do to support Kantara!
On a more personal note, July is a month where the northern and southern hemispheres are at their extremes. As I sat in my back garden on a hot and sunny summer's day I was reminded by this as a friend posted a picture of Mount Ruapehu in the center of New Zealand's North Island fully laden with snow, ready for the ski season. I had planned a few days off to ski in Austria in early April, but of course it was cancelled as so many of our business or personal plans were, wherever we were in the world. I partially made up for it last week taking a few days off in Munich to be with extended family. It's a beautiful city in a beautiful part of Germany so it was well worth the hassle of the travel that even on this short distance seemed as tiring as a long-haul. Maybe it's breathing in your own air for so long. Masks were mandatory all through the airport, on the plane for the flight, in the arrival airport, on public transport, in shops and anywhere crowded, but the level of compliance was a high and . in out the other end of course. And we came equipped with anti-bacterial gel and wipes, not that we needed them since the airline, all shops, restaurants etc made them readily available so in terms of personal risk, although heightened, it felt manageable at all times.
Onwards!
Kind regards
Colin
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