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[Laura Paglione <>]

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NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #28 | January 1, 2025

2024: That’s a Wrap!

This week we have been taking a moment to reflect on the COmanage Project journey this year. And what a journey it has been! We thank the community for their continued inspiration, collaboration, and support throughout the year. We couldn’t have accomplished so many great things without you!

Open Office Hours - January 10, 2025

Do you have a question about deploying or configuring Registry or Match? Want to get some input on a solution architecture design? Want to hear how your colleagues in the community are solving problems similar to yours? Each month, we gather for the Open Office Hours, a platform where you can bring your topics for discussion to the call. No need to register or spin up a presentation (but feel free if it suits you!); just show up! A short conversation starter kicks off each session to help get the discussion started. This is a great opportunity to connect with your peers, share your experiences, and learn from others.

Friday, January 10
9:00 AM (San Francisco) | 12:00 PM (New York) | 17:00 (London)
(no registration necessary)

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86226181846?pwd=T2VCIHTbdCEuiJyHF2avVuD0FwkZGe.1

Subscribe to COmanage Events or, https://www.addevent.com/calendar/Nr648428

January 2025 Topic Aperitif: Office Hours LIVE! Redux

During Office Hours LIVE! At Technology Exchange in Boston, we talked about the launch of COmanage Registry 5.0.0 and what its upcoming releases contain and the COmanage Project support programs. Here is your chance for a recap for those who weren’t able to attend, and an opportunity to ask more questions for those who were.

COmanage Project 2024 Year in Review

More happened during 2024 than we can fit into a newsletter, but here we share some highlights.

New Version Releases

This year we made MANY releases to both Registry v4 as well as milestone releases and the first production release of Registry v5 (PE)! Registry v5.0.0 is a significant investment in Registry’s code framework. This work includes a review of how Registry use has evolved over the past 14 years and an update of the code and data structures so that they are more effective and efficient for today’s users. To allow for regular feedback from the user community, the project team shared a series of Milestone Releases prior to the December production release.

You can find all of the details of the releases on the COmanage Roadmap page.

• Registry v5.0.0 (Dec)
  The first stable release of Registry v5.0.0. This version is intended for select early adopters with compatible use cases and is not at feature parity with Registry v4.
  
  

• Registry v4.4.0 (Nov)
  New capabilities and improvements, INCLUDING :

• Organization Source Plugin

• KdcServer model for integrating with Kerberos KDC servers

• Eligibility Dashboard Widget Plugin for Self Service.

• Plugin connection with ORCID member API.

• Configuration Handler Plugin.

• Fiddle Enroller Plugin.
  
  

Release v5.0.0 MR13 (Sep)
Plugins!

Release v4.3.5 (Aug)
Maintenance release: bug fixes and improvements

Registry v4.3.4 (Jun)
Accessibility audit aimed at WCAG 2.2 AA and produced a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT); Maintenance release: bug fixes and improvements

Release v5.0.0 MR12 (May)
Message templates and notifications

• Release v5.0.0 MR11 (Apr)
  External identity sources
  
  

• Registry v4.3.3 (Apr)
  Maintenance release: bug fixes and improvements

New Documentation and Materials

As we continue to improve and enhance the written resources that we provide for COmanage Project tools, we added a few new documentation types:

• Recipes
  First released in 2024, Recipes are a new resource type within the COmanage project documentation. They are designed to illustrate how one might combine a group of features in the COmanage tools to accomplish a specific goal or outcome. The recipes released this year:
  
  🥣 Registry Recipe: SSH Public Key Management

🥣 Registry Recipe: Using the ORCID Member API with Registry

🥣 Registry Recipe: Core API, CO Person Management in Registry

• Case Studies
  In 2024 we released our first case study. Designed to illustrate the ways that users are integrating COmanage tools into their architecture, case studies highlight how institutions use Registry and Match to address real-life challenges. We have several more already queued up for 2025!
  
  

• Registry 5.0.0 (PE) Technical Manual
  With the next version of Registry v5.0.0, we have created a new Technical Manual to go with it. This manual will continue to grow as new functionality is added to v5+. A user guide for the updated version is under development with a first release expected early in 2025. See the Registry PE (v5.0.0) Technical Manual.

A Focus on Usability

In 2024, we spent a lot of time thinking about how folks are using our tools, and how we could improve their experience. Here are a few things that we are particularly proud of:

• Registry Accessibility: WCAG Accessibility Statement and Audit
  COmanage tools have always been designed with accessibility in mind. With version 4.x of Registry, we added a WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility statement to the COmanage Style Guide, and performed an accessibility audit aimed at WCAG 2.2 AA. Our Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) contains the results of this audit. Thank you to the CILogon Project and the University of Illinois for their support in achieving this important enhancement.

• User interface bulk actions
  Though built in from the beginning of Registry version 5, 2024 saw the first implementation of using bulk actions within the user interface for managing group memberships. 

• Copy to clipboard
  A simple but helpful usability enhancement made to Registry version 5 is the ability to copy the value of a person attribute to the clipboard with a single click. This feature will also be added to Registry version 4 in early 2025.

• Vue.js components
  COmanage registry continues to make use of vuejs to build components to ease the user experience. Components include end-user focused dashboard widgets, the display of attributes on the Person canvas, and the person picker shown below, among others.

COmanage Support Programs

At the end of 2024, the COmanage Project launched two new support programs to ensure that both the COmanage community and YOU have the support needed to make any implementation a success

Support for the Community. The OSP.

The Operational Sustainability Programme (OSP) provides funding for the operations and infrastructure work associated with the COmanage Project. This includes bug fixes, release management, documentation, and other tasks necessary to maintain the Project. The OSP works a bit like public radio… we set a fund raising goal, and look to members of the community to help reach that goal in order to keep providing the software that you rely on. SCG manages the OSP on behalf of the COmanage Project. Contributions to the OSP accrue to the benefit of the community.

See the SCG COmanage Project Support page for more details.

Support for YOU. SCG Priority Hours.

SCG Priority Hours provide "top of the queue" support for subscribers. Available exclusively to OSP Funders, Priority Hours are an optional add-on. While SCG is unable to offer 24x7 operational support, Priority Hours receive the highest internal priority and will generally be placed at the top of the queue for response. Priority Hours may be used for any COmanage related project, though there are some limitations on use for feature development ("RFEs").

See the SCG COmanage Project Support page for more details.

Thank You to Our Supporters

We would like to express our deep gratitude to all of the institutions that have provided the financial support to enable 2024 to be such a successful year for the COmanage Project:

• The CILogon Project and the University of Illinois

• Indiana University (UITS)

• Internet2 | InCommon

• MSU (Humanities Commons)

• NIH NIAID VRO

• SCG Collaboration Group

• SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

• Southern Methodist University

• SUNET

• Wake Forest University

• And, other funders who have asked to be thanked behind the scenes

We also would like to thank all of those who have provided support in non-financial ways including participation in our events, providing feedback, submitting bugs (and sometimes fixes!), sharing your use cases, and so much more. Open source software thrives through an engaged community, and we are thankful that you are part of ours.

That’s it for this month’s newsletter. Thank you for a fantastic 2024. We hope to see you during our next open office hours!

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About The COmanage Project

COmanage is an Open Source Project that is focused on streamlining digital lifecycle management for your populations. It consists of two tools: Registry and Match. 

COmanage Registry is an identity registry with flexible enrollment and lifecycle management capabilities that helps you meet your identity management objectives using standardized tools and approaches. It can be used as a central person registry, a guest management system, or a collaboration hub for scholarly collaborations.

COmanage Match performs identity de-duplication in order to help minimize the creation of duplicate accounts for the same individual. It provides a heuristic-based system for matching identity records across multiple authoritative systems of record. Match can be used with Registry or as a standalone product complementary to your other tools.

Learn more about the project and its supporters at https://incommon.org/software/comanage/.

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