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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Summer marches on in the northern hemisphere with a continuation of wild extremes of weather, while in the southern hemisphere, Kantara staff tell me its been bitterly cold in South America. Whichever hemisphere you are in, I hope that the annual pause in pace, gives you time for some rest and recovery - perhaps also some time to respond to Kantara's member survey.
Without the constant pressure of conferences, Kantara staff use this period of the year to do all-important maintenance and updates to the websites and wikis. Some of these changes are subtle but I hope you see them nonetheless. This year has been no exception tho' we have noted how much busier it is this year, with a fairly full slate of calls for the assurance program, strategic opportunities and upcoming conference planning. The NGI_Trust project of which Kantara Europe is a consortium partner has been particularly busy.
A final reminder to take a look at our 10th Anniversary celebration video, Infographic and social Wall here, straight off the homepage of the website (and scroll down).
This month we welcome new Individual Contributor members and welcome back corporate members. Please join me in honoring these members. We thank you for your support of Kantara's societal purpose, its specifications, R&D Program and Trust Marked Assurance operations.
On the community side of the house:
- the Consent & Information Sharing WG (CISWG) continues its call for contributions (see it from the wiki landing page here) for the next build of the specification, and see the existing known implementations here.
- CISWG also hosts the Blinding Identity Taxonomy, a joint effort with Hyperledger Indy thank to the outstanding efforts of Paul Knowles and the team at Dativa. That was very much in the news again as Dativa's submission to the UK Parliament was taken up and published. Search for Paul on LinkedIn and pick up this activity and its associated video of the parliamentary session.
- the UMA WG continues its call for contributions of UMA profiles and extensions while also fine-tuning the business - legal framework model and preparing a recast UMA submission for IETF#105 in Montreal next month.
- hot on the heels of the US federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policy on identity credential and access management the GAO just published GAO-19-288 'Federal Agencies need to strengthen online identity verification processes' a need that Kantara can fulfil via its Trust Framework Operations program and its NIST 800-63-3 Rev 3 Class of Approval. Its steward ,the Identity Assurance Working Group (IAWG) is putting the final touches to its report to NIST regarding its learnings from assessments where guidance and clarification would be helpful. The refreshed Overview and Glossary for the Identity Assurance Framework (IAF) is out for public review and comment and welcomes your contribution.
Summer's here. Enjoy and relax!
Kind Regards,
Colin
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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? Bella, Ruth, Armin, Oliver, Chris and myself are only too willing to assist. Contact them via email.
Events: See them all here!