2019: August

Owned by Colin Wallis (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Sept 05, 2019
5 min read

Hello everyone

This is the running update from the Executive Director. Have questions or comments? Suggest some added information or edits? Contact ED Colin at kantarainitiative dot org.

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As I type this on September 2nd - Labor Day in the US and Canada - I definitely sense the pace of activity picking up, not just in our digital identity and personal data industry, but across the spectrum of the public and private sectors, to say nothing of politics!  What an interesting next few months this will be (smile).

The exciting news that I was portending in last month's blog has been delayed by a few weeks.  Rest assured that it is coming, so please watch out for it on the website and on social media during this month.

As we gather our strength for the re-start of the conference circuit through until the end of the year, I hope that you have had a break over the northern hemisphere summer, got some skiing done in the south, and are poised for what is about to descend upon us. Take a look at the sheer spread of events at which Kantara is speaking on our Events page. While on the subject of events, Kantara has been offered complimentary passes to give to five lucky members for IDENTITY WEEK ASIA,  October 8-9th 2019 at Suntec Convention Centre, Singapore. These passes are valued at $1000 so, even if you are not yet a member, and reside nearby or are visiting during that period, join now and save!  

The mention of member-only benefits reminds me to note that the slate of draft standards and associated documents has arrived into the Kantara Board sub committee group from ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27/ Working Group 5 (Identity Management & Privacy) for comment and review in advance of the next round of meetings in Paris next month. Given the difficulty many folks face in engaging with national body mirror groups, Kantara offers its members a rare opportunity to preview and contribute to this work through its Category C Liaison. If this is of interest, please contact Staff.  

As reported last last month, Kantara staff have updated the the website and wiki over the summer. I hope that you can see the subtle changes! These updates have taken place while they have been fielding increased expressions of interest for the assurance program.

With that in mind, we have restarted our monthly Member Spotlight series. It features members that are highly invested in Kantara and is designed to give a sense of how their association with you has been of mutual benefit. It's a pleasure to see ID.me leading us off. This, and Member Spotlights from years gone by, can be found in the Membership drop-down menu of the website.  

It's not only Staff that have been working hard. The Work Groups have been very busy over the summer:

  • UMA has continued to develop its business-legal framework (thank you Eve, Tim Reiniger and all active participants),
  • Consent & Info Sharing is updating its charter, planning new deliverables and working on others (thank you Jim, Iain, Lisa, John, Andrew, Mark, Mary and all active participants), while
  • Identity Assurance and Healthcare Identity Assurance have both been contributing comments on draft documents from other industry and government bodies (thanks you Ken, Martin, Pete, Mark, Tom, Barry) as well as updating the IAF Overview. The new document will be titled “IAF Glossary and Overview” and will combine the IAF Overview and the IAF Glossary. Expect to see it shortly.
  • A reminder from last month that the Federation Interoperability WG has met regularly through the summer having had acceptance of SAML2INT Implementation profile in the REFEDS community and is evolving a Deployment Profile with a brand name tbd, with further development of educational and assurance tools. If you are part of the REFEDS community you really should take this opportunity to join this group.

To give you a sense of the depth and breadth of IAWG's contributions in particular, the next 'Keeping up with Kantarians' email newsletter coming out mid-month in September will highlight this Group's selfless efforts 'to lift all boats' in helping other government and industry consortium efforts. This type of support effort is the essence of Kantara's mission and the ethics and ethos it steadfastly holds.

There is member news too from the KIPI R&D program. Steve Wilson's Lockstep Technologies has completed its Mobile Device Attribute Verification (MDAV) project. It is now commercially launched as VALIDIDY - a highly innovative reprise of certificate based attribute exchange via smartphone. It has a range of great use cases from First Responder to visiting in-home Healthcare workers. Be sure to check the VALIDIDY website out and speak to Steve or Les.  The other Applied R&D project by Exponent Inc, is nearing completion of its NFC and BLE protocol based MOB4PACS project in effect turning the smartphone into a PIV card with fantastic high security and law enforcement potential. Breaking News: Exponent's final phase of work has been adjusted to support the release of the mDL standard ISO 18013-5 from the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17/WG 10 working group.  Given the mass of activity surrounding mDL, your organization may well be interested in understanding Exponent's efforts in advance of the market. If so (and if you are a Kantara member in good standing) please get in touch so I can make introductions that might prove to be very beneficial. 

A brief update also from the two other Kantara branded entities:

  • The Board of the Educational Foundation is meeting regularly, currently comprising the founders ISOC and ForgeRock, joined by Sal D'Agostino representing the FIRE WG arising out of the transition of IDESG's assets to Kantara last year, and 2 independent Directors but nonetheless very familiar with the raison d'etre of the Foundation, Kay Chopard Cohen and Angela Rey. The Foundation's Mission is being fine-tuned along with other policy development, while all the time looking for grant funding to provide education and guidance into various projects.
  • Kantara Europe continues to be tightly focused on the H2020 NGI_Trust project's 2nd Call for Proposals which opens October 1st, the NGI_Trust consortium being the primary source of its existing funding.       

This month we welcome back Individual Contributor member Ross Foard. Great to have you back with us in your individual capacity Ross..(wink). 

Summer's nearly over. Let's get cracking!

Kind Regards,

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.

  • As always, our Specifications, Recommendations and Reports are available for download from our Reports and Recommendations web repository - now with frictionless access.  

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

Events: See them all here!