Middleware Announcements

[Steve Olshansky <>]

The Internet2 Scalable Privacy Project (ScalePriv), funded with the recent 
NSTIC grant 
to Internet2, is seeking campuses to participate in the Multi-factor 
Authentication (MFA) 
Cohortium" (see definition below).  Applications are open until April 12, 
2013.

The MFA Cohortium is a ScalePriv-supported group of institutions sharing 
their 
explorations, experiences, expertise, artifacts, and overall "journey" in 
learning about, 
planning for, and deploying multi-factor authentication for a variety of key 
use cases 
within each institution, as well as federated access to services. It will be 
a facilitated 
and focused 15-month effort to help you (as a participating institution) make 
real 
progress towards MFA deployments. It will enable your institution, and higher 
education 
more broadly, to answer the questions "where do we need MFA?," "how do we 
deploy it?," and 
"what will it cost and what is our ROI?." And it will be focused on the 
research and 
education (R&E) community, dealing with issues and use cases of particular 
concern within
R&E such as integrating MFA into WebSSO, sensitive data, cloud services, 
distance 
learners, bring-your-own-device, and the return on investment (ROI) within 
the R&E 
environment.

Important highlights: 
* Will provide your institution broader access to expertise, resources, and 
collaborators 
to help you accomplish your MFA goals. 
*Enable a significant advancement in the deployment of Multi-factor 
Authentication across 
Higher Education. 
* Combining MFA with federation can multiply the impact and reach of MFA to 
inter-
institutional, shared resource, and cloud service environments. 
* A key effort within the Internet2 Scalable Privacy Project. 
* 15-month facilitated collaborative effort beginning in April 2013 and 
ending in June 
2014. 
* Number of institutions accepted for participation in the Cohortium may need 
to be 
restricted, depending on response, to ensure value and effective 
collaboration for the 
member institutions.

The full Call for Participation, containing a much richer explanation of the 
goals of the 
MFA Cohortium, more detailed information on what it will do and how it will 
operate, the 
expectations for institutions participating, and what information is needed 
in your 
"application to join", can be found at:

   Call for Participation:  https://spaces.internet2.edu/x/mQgwAg

One option for applying will be to use the web-based application form:

   Apply online at: https://spaces.internet2.edu/x/4wwwAg

Remember, the closing date for applications is April 12, 2013. Questions may 
be
sent to:  

 .

cohortium: "Group of institutions sharing their explorations, experiences,
expertise, artifacts, and overall journey," in this case of planning for and
deploying multi-factor authentication. 
  * Cohort: In statistics and demography, a cohort is a group of subjects who 
have shared 
  a particular event together during a particular time span [cohort 
(statistics) from 
  Wikipedia]. 
  * -tium added to noun base to create abstract noun, "something connected 
with the act," 
  could mean "act, condition, office of...".


--
Steve Olshansky
Director, Federated Technologies
Internet2
www.internet2.edu
www.incommon.org