Overview
The REFEDS Steering Committee has approved the launch of a consultation on the adoption of the Academia Entity Category by REFEDS. The consultation opened on 12th August 2015 and closed on 23rd September 2015. Participants are invited to review the full text and make change proposals in the table below or by email to the REFEDS Coordinators and to express their support / dissension for the category. It is recommended that you also read the prepared notes on the proposal. The category is currently with the REFEDS SC for consideration.
Statements of Support / Dissension
As this category has been contentious in the community, we are asking for organisations to express their support or dissension below to allow us to gauge the appropriateness of REFEDS adopting this approach.
Name | Organisation | Reason |
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Jim Basney | NCSA / XSEDE (InCommon) | Support: This is needed by CILogon to support SeedMe access for academic but not commercial use. |
Niels van Dijk | GEANT Project; InAcademia Service | Support: This is needed by the InAcadmia Service to support access for academic users, but not others (K12, Homeless IdPs, etc) |
Romain Wartel | CERN / WLCG | Support: This would help supporting the needs of the High Energy Physics community |
Jozef Misutka | LINDAT/CLARIN | Support: This would simplify filtering out IdPs not meeting our AAI requirements. |
Change Log
Change Log for the Consultation on the Academia Entity Category. The Consultation started on 12th August 2015 and closes on 23rd September 2015 (5pm CEST). Please fill in your proposed changes to Academia Category below.
Number | Current Text | Proposed Text / Query | Proposer | Action |
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2 | a relying party SHOULD NOT assume that an attribute assertion received from an identity provider with the academia entity category represents a Subject (as defined in [TBD]) with any particular affiliation to the organization on behalf of which the identity provider is operated. | Is this meant to imply "an attribute assertion received *that does not contain an ePA/ePSA* from an identity provider..."? If "yes", is the expectation is that the mechanism for membership/publication in a federation will sufficiently address (via POPs or the like) ensuring that asserted ePA/ePSA are adhering to "expected norms"? Or if "no", is the intent of the category to allow interpretation of the values of ePA/ePSA based on membership, but still disavowing any absolute meanings to the affiliations? | Eric Goodman | Raised on github - #11. |
3 | Annotate those member identity providers that represent academic institutions, in order to distinguish them from identity providers that are not able to claim any affiliation with the international research and education community | The definition section sets the bar for degree-granting institutions at ISCED level 6. There are a number of level 5 degree-granting institutions in the US ("community colleges") that have faculty that contribute to national and international research projects, and may be funded by agencies such as the NSF. I'm concerned that the cut-off at level 6 may cause IdPs with participants in international research to be hidden from discovery. | Nick Roy | It is inevitable that where-ever the bar is set there will be groups that fall outside this. Raised on github - #7. |
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12 | Change definition approach | An identity provider annotated with the academia category implies that the registrar has made the determination that the identity provider SHOULD be trusted to assert the following attributes [...]. When making the decision to annotate an identity provider with the academia category a registry SHOULD consider the following criteria: [...] Add text on link between using this category and ePA/ePSA | Leif Johansson | This is #14 on github. |
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14 | Specifically add Research Hospitals | Research Hospitals are organizations present at least in Italy and France. I propose to list them under the current academic organizations. Though, I don't know if it is better to have a "teaching or research hospital" item, or just add them as a new item. They differ from teaching hospitals in that they do not offer courses on their own, nor they can award academic degrees, though they provide laboratories and internships for researchers, and they can host courses with special agreements with Universities (but that it is not always the case). A broad definition that cover both the Italian and the French case is: Currently the term "researchHospital" is employed for schacHomeOrganizationType in both the Italian and the French Identity Federations: | Davide Vaghetti (Consortium GARR) | raised on github #19 |
Other Comments / Observations