REFEDS Steering Committee Agenda, 15th July 2015
Attendees
The meeting was held at 13:00 CEST on 15th July 2015 via Skype.
In attendance: Tom Barton, Licia Florio, Jean Francois Guezou, Nicole Harris, Thomas Lenggenhager.
Apologies: Heath Marks (technical problems), Miro Milinovic, Valter Nordh
Agenda Items
1. Open Actions.
SCM20150219-07: NH to push the MRPS back out to the REFEDS list with the summary responses so far and point out that we need more. NH to also push to edugain list.
NH explained that the main problem with moving forward with this item was a lack of response, either positive or negative. This work will now be taken forward under the GN4 SA5 Trust and Identity Hamonisation work area, and introduced via eduGAIN. The eduGAIN SC will be engaged on this - eduGAIN currently recommends each federation should have a MRPS but doesn't say what.
ACTION ITEM CLOSED.
SCM20150219-11: NH and KJK to work on reviving the MARI conversation.
Update: Action came out last year at TNC14 in Dublin. A WG was created at the request of the community but there has been no action at all in this area. There are relevant topics that are being discussed at the moment, due to the increased usage of eduGAIN and there are still interop issues among between SAML1 and SAML2 attributes released.
Decision on what to do with this: two options (i) put more energy to revitalise this group or (ii) push it back to eduGAIN.
TB noted there is a WG federation interoperability WG under I2. The driving energy has to come from the federations that are experiencing problems in this area.
ACTION ITEM CLOSED and SUPERCEDED.
- ACTION20150715-1: Add discussion on MARI issues to the agenda for REFEDS@I2 and work with I2 Federation Interoperability WG on this issue with the aim to present.
- ACTION20150715-2: add a reference on mari page on the REFEDS wiki that the group is hold.
2. Workplan Review.
REF-1: Wiki,website and meetings all delivered as planned. Survey completed - All results are up online - NH plans to create a brief document that Federations can use for more formal reporting. The presentation given at the REFEDS meeting is also a useful resource.
REF-2 - 2 entity categories are done and work is focusing on uptake and promotion. NH doing work with Mikael Linden on CoCo and R&S promotion, following up on the training event in Porto.
REF-3: Work ongoing on VO and groups. NH will report back following a meeting with Heather Flanagan this week.
REF-4: MET is now using the pyff framework (developed by Leif Johansson). A call for new features request will go out soon. Also looking at the big picture on more general monitoring tools.
- ACTION20150715-3: NH to put out a call for new features for MET.
PEER/REEP - Development is progressing well. At some point we need to look at the business model as to whether to push this a service. Some ideas are to use PEER/REEP to help connect metadata directly to eduGAIN, although there are interesting problems and questions around the idea of using alternative routes to national federations in order to publish to eduGAIN. Feedback from Service Providers on existing barriers would be helpful here.
- ACTION20150715-4: LF to use AARC gather experience from international SPs when joining a federation.
REF-5: Standards and specifications work progressing well. NH will talk to various people about the use of the IETF stream and other possible models in pre-IETF meetings this week.
3. Follow up from TNC meeting re: Chris's presentation.
Chris Phillips gave a presentation on interoperability issues at REFEDS@TNC15, including reflections on moving beyond SAML and looking at OIDC and ADFS issues in particular. Suggestions around work for REFEDS have included the need to speak with one voice to microsoft regarding ADFS, progressing adfstoolkit.org, and organising meetings with these providers. An issue for REFEDS is that it is not a customer of these vendors so has little impact or importance for them.
Products and implementation is one issue, creating interop considerations. A second issue is the nature of what federations consist of - things have started to emerge that gives an idea of what might be happening here. This begins to raise issues and questions about expectations of what we do and what we should do around this space.
SC members recommended keeping a watching brief and encouraging converation, but no specific actions for REFEDS at this time.
4. Academia Entity Category.
NH outlined the process for the Academia Entity Category to date, the two sides of the argument for the category and the political drivers behind this. TB highlighted that it would be good to draw out the IdP arguments for implementing this - as the constituency of federations change Higher Education and related institutions may wish to explicitly distinguish themselves from other IdP types.
NH asked for APPROVAL to begin a 4 week consultation period on this category (possibly extended to 6 weeks due to the holiday period). Members approved this proposal.
- ACTION20150715-5: NH to update the REFEDS wiki pages with reflections on IdP requirements for the Academia Entity Category and then start the consultation period.
5. FedLab proposals (shared via email).
FedLab - A new proposal to request addtional funding from the Vietsch foundation and some budget from REFEDS. Members are invited to consider the proposals for REFEDS, the larger picture of how FedLab should be structured (particularly conversations around central vs distributed models) and sustainability questions for FedLab.
- ACTION20150715-6: All read the circulated document on FedLab.
- ACTION20150715-7: NH to give more feedback on the REFEDS role in FedLab futures after follow up calls with Roland and Rainer.
6. Brief sponsorship update.
Sponsorship change process has gone and well and was easy to implement for sponsors. We may be able to add a new platinum sponsor in the 2015 period.
7. AOB.
No AOB points raised.
8. Action Summary.
- ACTION20150715-1: Add discussion on MARI issues to the agenda for REFEDS@I2 and work with I2 Federation Interoperability WG on this issue with the aim to present.
ACTION20150715-2: add a reference on mari page on the REFEDS wiki that the group is hold.ACTION20150715-3: NH to put out a call for new features for MET.- ACTION20150715-4: LF to use AARC gather experience from international SPs when joining a federation.
ACTION20150715-5: NH to update the REFEDS wiki pages with reflections on IdP requirements for the Academia Entity Category and then start the consultation period.ACTION20150715-6: All read the circulated document on FedLab.- ACTION20150715-7: NH to give more feedback on the REFEDS role in FedLab futures after follow up calls with Roland and Rainer.