2017: February

Owned by Colin Wallis (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Mar 11, 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@kantarainitiative.org

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February sees the start of the conference season, and for many of us in this community, that starts with RSA in San Francisco.

I think we can safely conclude that Kantara did it 'with bells on' this year (smile).  

Not only did we have some great presentations by Kantara members Eve Maler and Ian Glazer, but also Sarah Squire did a great job in leading the 'Birds of a Feather' session for our pre-formative digital identity professionals project (a.k.a ID-Pro).

And don't forget social!  'Breakfast with Kantara' at Jillian's on 4th Street was well attended despite the early hour on the Wednesday, while the 'Friends and Family' cocktail party with the IDESG folks on Thursday graced visitors to Mary Hodder's parents hillside apartment offering most exquisite views of San Francisco and the bridge.  Hat tip to Kantara Director organizations CA, Digi.me and Forgerock - thank you for sponsoring - and thanks to Mary's and Virtual's organizational prowess!

We sure needed the respite by then because the day-long Board meeting at Forgerock's SFO offices on Thursday was packed with reports and presentations, action, motions and minutes - all with one aim - to deliver great value to Kantara members through 2017 and beyond.

From San Francisco the circus moved to Vienna, where long time member and eGov Working Group Chair Rainer Hoerbe had organized the TIIME (Trust and Internet Identity Meeting in Europe) unconference.  Rainer and his wife Andrea, assisted by Sabine, were fantastic hosts and steered us on and off trams and through the beautiful streets of Vienna to a historic tavern where Kantara's European members ruminated over items discussed in Kantara's pre-conference workshop. Along with many familiar names, see the proceedings of the TIIME unconference here .

February was not all conferences and play - make no mistake.

Kantara's new Mission statement was given its seal of approval by the Board at its February meeting.  It goes to the essence of what we do: 

Kantara Initiative is the global consortium improving trustworthy use of identity and personal data through innovation, standardization and good practice

A lot of what you will see from Kantara this year will speak directly to its Mission.  It's easy to talk about it and write about the need for it, as other consortia in our community are so adept at.  But it's darn hard to do. 

Subject Matter Experts and Money. That's what it takes. We are blessed with the former and the richness of the conversation they bring. We are constantly challenged by the latter.  To those organizations hanging out on Kantara's mailing list or lurking on its Working and Discussion Groups, I say this to you; 'It is not going to happen by magic'. If you think that by sitting and waiting for somebody else to invest the time and money to build the artefacts so you can just consume them, you are mistaken. Kantara prides itself on its conviction to maintain low barrier to entry so folks can engage with the work. That is sacrosanct. But unless and until you actually engage with the people and invest in the work yourselves, the value will not follow.  So please - get engaged, get out your check-book to direct some funds to the piece of work you want to see Kantara do, and in so doing, drive this community forward in improving the trustworthy use of identity and personal data to build a better, safer and more equitable digital economy. 

You'll see a lot of changes in the coming months - a new, simpler membership structure, some things going on in Europe, refreshed ByLaws and Operating Procedures to support a refreshed IPR policy, and announcements about new conformity assessment specifications to deliver our mission to the new emerging standards and regulations that will underpin so much of future online experiences. 

It's big, it's bold - it's 2017 (smile).

Cheers!

Colin

Around the Houses:

Marketing:

  • We have some racy new badges, device stickers, Kantara flyers and slide deck ready to go for 2017.  To Members in good standing that are holding an event where Kantara and its assets are being presented, please email staff@kantarainitiative.org to take some to distribute.   

Program, Work Group and Discussion Group Updates:

  • The WGs and DGs of Leadership Council now operate a blog, so you can read what's going on in groups you are not regularly attending. See it here
  • ID Pro DG work is making good progress with Membership/Services and Governance.  Those things need to take shape fast now, as corporate interest in becoming founding members with requisite seed funds support was very much in evidence at RSA. We have 3 large well known corporations interested in supporting ID Pro as founding members. We need 3 more to make it happen.  If your organization wants to be acclaimed as a founding member of a new Association of Digital Identity Professionals, please email me, colin@kantarainitiative.org .  
  • The Consent Receipt 45 day Public Review finished on February 20th with a good bunch of comments from across the globe.  Voltage Gate's David Turner is in the editing chair and is preparing the disposition of comments for Consent and Information Sharing Work Group to review and during March. 
  • The Identity Assurance Working Group is reviewing the officially published 800-63-3 draft and preparing a further round of comments to augment those submitted on the GitHub pre-release in the summer.
  • The Identity Relationship Management Working Group are poised to vote through their draft 'Refining the Design Principles of Identity Relationship Management' Report as a follow up to its initial 'Principles' report that attracted worldwide attention. I'm sure this one will too.
  • The eGovernment Working Group is poised to vote through its draft interim report 'Code of Conduct for Relying Parties' to support the Identity Assurance program and future conformance assessments.  
  • As always if you have a query or question, staff are only too willing to assist.  Email them on staff@kantarainitiative.org        

Events: See them here! https://kantarainitiative.org/calendars/

  • Next up is the KYC conference in London in March, then IIW and EIC in May, along with other more local and regional events along the way. And we are quietly working on something very special for September. So don't leave your summer vacation too late please folks.. (smile)

Cheers!

Colin