Presence and IntComm WG

[(Dennis Baron)]

> It's important to put some thought into "smart federation". Different 
> organizations deploy these technologies in different ways. We have a 
> very open federation model on the open XMPP network, but we have also 
> recently deployed an intermediate certification authority that issues 
> free digitial certificates to server admins, which you folks are welcome 
> to use (perhaps accept connections only from other entities that have 
> certificates). Another model would be for Internet2 to run its own CA. 
> Another model might be used in say the financial industry, where 
> business level agreements would be hammered out in advance between 
> companies that want to interoperate. But it seems to me that the old 
> "we'll connect with anyone" model of email is simply unacceptable these 
> days, and that organizations want to federate in a more intelligent 
> fashion this time around (i.e., for real-time communication).

I think it would be great for the group to discuss this and recommend
a model (if you'd be willing to join that would be great!).  I'm not
sure another CA is needed.  (Which reminds me - I need to check w/JIS
to see why jis.mit.edu has a certificate but mit.edu doesn't :-) !)

I'm not sure we should abandon the "we'll connect with anyone" model
altogether.  But I think organizations should authenticate any
communications that comes from them.  And users should be able to
decide who can communicate with them, how, and when.  But that's just
my model - I'm interested in others' thoughts.  For cases like the
financial industry there may be a need for company control over who
can "talk" to whom - but I hope that universities will not find that
necessary.

WG - should we put this on the agenda for a Thursday call?

               Dennis