2019: November

Owned by Colin Wallis (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 16, 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 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,

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!