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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Whew, that was a whirlwind May!
The action on the first day of May as we gathered in Mountain View for Vendor Relationship Management (VRM) day, the now traditional precursor to the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW).
Many of the participants are Kantara members and participants and through the anchor organization for day, Customer Commons Inc, we share the same philosophies in terms of 'do not track'.
Customer Commons uses Kantara's platform to develop its User Submitted Terms project in the same wiki area used by Consent Receipt, under the Consent and Information Sharing Work Group.
I encourage you to support the great work going on there as all online providers serving EU located citizens count down the days till GDPR enforcement.
Kantara's artefacts in the form of UMA 2.0 and Consent Receipt along with its API the Consent Receipt Generator, is one of just a handful of actual free downloadable tools for use to enable organizations
to seize the opportunities for good corporate citizenry and competitive advantage that the GDPR offers. Matthias Reinwarth, a Kuppinger Cole analysts explained it this way.
IIW was itself the 'family gathering' we know it for but like all extended families, a bunch of new folks show up with new ideas to challenge 'de jure' thinking in the space, which is always interesting. Kantara and
other sponsors make the event possible. Thanks to the many members and non member participants to led sessions on UMA, ID Pro, Consent Management, Identity conformance assessment and policy sessions related to digital identity.
The following week the digital identity circus moved onto Munich for the European Identity Conference. Kantara held its pre-conference workshop and European Plenary which was packed full again,
despite being given a bigger room this year. The workshop was capped off with big blue 'ID Pro Body of Knowledge' cake - courtesy of BoK project lead and 'local' Thorsten Niebuhr.
Some folks joined for 'Breakfast with Kantara' the following day. We were treated to some fantastic keynotes from Eve Maler on UMA, Ian Glazer on ID Pro and Allan Foster
on Consent.
I am writing this from the OECD HQ in Paris where Kantara is carrying out its responsibilities to ITAC in its support of OECD member nations with advice on Security and Privacy related matters of the continued development of the digital economy.
This is one of those roles which, while not in the spotlight of industry commentators, reflects the global recognition of Kantara's credibility in the space and the expertise of its members.
I want to finish this month's Director's corner with a shout-out to the new members joining Kantara over the past few of months: from the UK, Adunity (on the side of 'good' wrt the UK digital advertising community), Meeco from the Personal Data community, Identity.com and UHG/Optum seeking approval under Kantara's Identity Assurance Program and TrustMark, European identity solution providers UbiSecure (welcome back guys!), and Janelle Allen & William Lowe as individual contributors.
Recognition of new members should be given in the context of grateful thanks for renewing members, without whose support I would not be writing this today on this platform; Deutsche Telekom AG, Government of Canada, Internet2, Neustar, Scott Perry Associates, Symantec, Synchronoss/Zentry and a whole bunch of committed individual contributors.
Cheers
Colin
Around the Houses:
Marketing:
We had good social network coverage April.
- See https://twitter.com/KantaraNews and https://twitter.com/UMAWG and https://twitter.com/KantaraCISWG and 'Follow' them from now on!
- KIPI - the Kantara Identity, Privacy Incubator, featured strongly as did UMA's last call for contributions to UMA 2.0.
Program, Work Group and Discussion Group Updates:
- You can keep up with the latest directly off the Leadership Council's Blog here.
- As always if you have a query or question, staff are only too willing to assist. Email them here https://kantarainitiative.org/contact-us/
Events: See them here! https://kantarainitiative.org/calendars/
- The ISO SC27 meetings in Hamilton, New Zealand were good for Kantara with many of our comments accepted in the mission critical standard 29184, Guidelines for online Notice and Consent. Of note also, was that 29003 Identity Proofing failed its ballot to proceed to an International Standard and was relegated to a Technical Specification. However a new Study Period to begin the process of re-mixing that text into a future IS offers a back-handed compliment for Kantara, with the title of 'Identity Assurance Framework' a phrase very well known to Kantara's Identity Assurance Program and Work Group. A search of the term will indicate its first use and the subsequent uses by other entities.
- On the subject of Identity Assurance, representatives of GÉANT/REFEDS, InCommon, SUNET, SURFNet and Kantara, met in Washington DC April 23rd, on the eve of the Internet2 global Summit to discuss closer collaboration on identity Trust Framework development. Updates on this initiative will be given as events unfold.
- And still stay tuned for special events September and beyond.
Cheers!
Colin