2017: April

Owned by Colin Wallis (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 18, 2017
4 min read

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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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.  
As some of you know, the BlockChain SmartContracts Discussion Group is in the final stages of completing its Report that outlines the nature of the issues it has uncovered together with suggestions as to how Kantara could proceed to resolve these issues.
I intervened to remind the Group what Kantara does and the cadence of its 'invent-innovate-implement' process, to help them mark their suggestions along that continuum.
As I did so, I got positive feedback from some members and non member participants in that group many of whom had not heard Kantara explained this way before, so I thought I would repeat it here.   
If you stand back and look across Kantara's portfolio, you'll see a repeating cycle as it goes about its work - Brainstorming Discussion Groups - to - Spec writing Working Groups - to - conformance assessment Programs.
Kantara Directors offer the Discussion Group platform to make it easy to contribute and investigate, size and frame up value propositions that industry needs. 
DGs are the 'birds of a feather' that typically draw in first movers and thought leaders like you, in order to frame up follow-up Working Groups that bring in a community of paying members because that community wants that specification, API or whatever written or coded, to solve a particular problem.
And once that artifact is complete the Working Group's community typically want to formalize that work through paid conformance assessment and approval, to delineate those who have it and those that don't, in the marketplace - for the safety, security and privacy of all users of the digital economy. 
Quite simply, that is Kantara's business model. 
Roughly 60% of Kantara's revenue comes from membership, and 40% from the Identity Assurance and other monetized Programs. Kantara wants to reverse that metric and in the long term, drive down the reliance on membership once a sufficient number of monetized programs can carry the overhead costs of the platform. 
The Identity Assurance Program (the first of several we hope to offer) came about because of a need (in that case US Federal agencies) needing to leverage private sector Identity and Credential Service Providers which in turn brought the Credential Service and Identity Proofing Service Providers to join Kantara, form the Identity Assurance Working Group, contribute to the specification (in that case the Identity Assurance Framework) which in turn became the monetized 3rd party assessment and conformance Program it is to this day, and for which Kantara is known globally for. 
  
You can see glimmers of this model surfacing in discussions in the Consent & Information Sharing WG about writing conformance criteria for the recently balloted Consent Receipt, and in the Identity of Things DG....
The Recommendations of a Work Group don't have to be a mirror image of the Identity Assurance Program, nor using the synergies of another WG's outputs, tho' both are good beacons to be guided by. But it does have to be a strong enough value proposition that motivates a community to come to Kantara to do their work to solve their problems.
And the directed/sponsored funds and/or member dues that flow in from that motivated community, allows Kantara to continue to cover the cost of great brainstorming DGs like the BSC DG that kick-starts the cadence of the model.

Cheers

Colin

Around the Houses:

Marketing:

We had good social network coverage April.


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. (smile)

Cheers!

Colin