Middleware Announcements

[Kevin Morooney <>]

(This communication is being distributed to , , , TIER Investor Community and .  It will also go to REFEDs in a separate communication.)

Dear fellow trust and identity leaders, supporters and enthusiasts,

In January 2016, Internet2 created the Trust and Identity division and I am now completing my first ten months as vice president in that area. This coincides with the continued maturation of InCommon and the launch of our TIER program (Trust and Identity in Education and Research), which is both a software effort and an aligning of campus practices related to identity and access management.

The lines are blurring between InCommon and TIER. After community discussion over the last few months, we are creating a new technical advisory group that will consider Trust and Identity as a whole including organizational identity (TIER) and national infrastructure (InCommon). 

Called CACTI (Community Architecture Committee for Trust and Identity), this group will advise the Trust and Identity division on how to ensure that key integration points, services, and technologies align from end-to-end for our faculty, students and staff and valuable service providers. We have opened a consultation regarding the formation of CACTI and invite your comments and feedback. You will find the CACTI charter and other documents at https://spaces.internet2.edu/x/bQwZBg. The consultation period is open now until December 9, 2016.

The formation of CACTI is part of an evolution of the both the technical and policy advisory structure for Trust and Identity. While InCommon and TIER have separate executive policy groups (InCommon Steering Committee and the TIER Community Investor Council), the two have held two joint meetings in the last few months (at the Internet2 Global Summit and the Internet2 Technology Exchange). Over the next several months, we expect these joint conversations to continue and the groups to merge in some way.

I expect that the InCommon Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) will continue to provide technical guidance, specifically as it relates to the operation of the InCommon Federation, our national R&E trust federation. 

One of the distinguishing, important and cherished dynamics of trust and identity historically has been the nature of “of, for, and by” the community.  I look forward to the conversation about CACTI and how we can continue to define and shape the future of trust and identity at Internet2, together.

Thanks, as always, for your thoughtful and passionate guidance and leadership.

-kevin

Kevin Morooney
Vice President, Trust and Identity
Internet2