InCommon Seeks Nominees for Steering Committee
InCommon announces an open call for nominees for seats on its governing Steering Committee. The InCommon Steering committee is responsible for overseeing the growing set of identity and trust related activities of InCommon.
To nominate an individual, including yourself, please send your recommendation to nominations@incommon.org by Monday, December 3rd. The InCommon Steering Committee will consider a broad roster of senior leadership for its open seats. Questions and comments may also be sent to John Krienke at jcwk@internet2.edu.
Details
For a current list of Steering Committee members, please see the InCommon website <http://www.incommon.org/about.html>.
Steering Committee members serve three-year terms. Individuals serve on the Steering Committee in three classes of roughly three members each. Each year, one class is replaced by a new class. The Steering Committee may extend to an outgoing Steering member an invitation to serve another term, up to a maximum of two full terms.
The Steering Committee typically meets every other week for an hour to discuss emerging issues, policies, and strategic direction. Officers are also selected every year: a Chair, Vice Chair (who becomes the Chair the following year), Secretary, and Treasurer.
The Steering Committee is the governing body of InCommon LLC. As such, it is responsible for reviewing and setting fees and determining the service portfolio of InCommon. It also sets eligibility criteria and participation requirements for organizations. By-Laws and foundational documents are available on the policy page <http://www.incommon.org/policies.html>.
Qualifications
The Steering Committee is composed of a representational set of leaders in the higher education community and its key partners. Past considerations have weighed the need for IT leaders from: large research universities, small colleges, public and private institutions, various constituencies within the university (e.g., library, academic, legal, administrative, etc.), regional geography within the U.S., and our corporate and various other partners from a variety of sectors. Each year the Steering Committee creates a Nominations Advisory committee which discusses the representational balance needed for the incoming class.
November 2012 InCommon Update Available
The November 2012 issue of the InCommon Update features:
- November 14 IAM Online Features CIFER IAM Suite
- Federation Passes 1,200 Entity Mark
- Fisher Announced Two-Year Free Access to Cloud Shibboleth IdP
- InCommon Website Updated
- New Certificate Service subscribers
- New InCommon Participants
- Information about new Sponsored Partners
Fischer Announces Free Cloud-Based Shibboleth Identity Provider
Fischer International Identity has announced free access to its cloud-based Shibboleth Identity Provider (IdP) federation solution for qualified institutions. Institutions will receive implementation and two years of Shibboleth IdP hosting with 24/7 management and support for 5,000 users at no charge.
“Fischer is dedicated to the advancement of education and we have been impressed with what InCommon, Internet2 NET+ Services, and OARnet are doing to advance education,” said Andrew Sroka, president and CEO of Fischer. “We are pleased to help additional institutions join InCommon, begin to leverage the cloud offerings available through InCommon and NET+ Services, and will develop a model to obtain affordable and high-value identity services through regional providers like OARnet.”
According to Jack Suess, chief information officer and vice president for information technology at UMBC, and InCommon Steering Committee chair, “This service will allow additional institutions to quickly and cost-effectively deploy InCommon. Fischer’s program will allow institutions to share in the same benefits as the current 317 higher education InCommon participants – leveraging InCommon to easily integrate some of the 125 InCommon commercial service providers and 28 Internet NET+ Services in place today.”
Joining InCommon requires an institution to support federated identity management technology. Many institutions have delayed joining InCommon out of concern they don’t have the staffing or funding to meet the technical requirements. Fischer’s offering will enable institutions to meet InCommon requirements without acquiring hardware, software or staff. Fischer’s offering fully supports the latest release of Shibboleth, allowing institutions on regional networks like OARnet to achieve single sign-on convenience for resources such as Internet2 Net+ Services, EDUCAUSE, HathiTrust, and many others. Through Fischer’s service, an institution maintains control of all user passwords, which are never stored in an outside system.
InCommon enables institutions to improve the educational experience by providing access to a myriad of resources and collaboration. Adherence to InCommon policy and technical requirements decreases the cost of user administration and ensures sound security practices. Adds Suess, “Fischer’s generous offer will serve as a catalyst to enable InCommon to better fulfill its mission to enable easier and safer sharing of protected online resources.”
Details are available at www.ignite-federation.com.
About Internet2 and InCommon
Internet2® is a member-owned advanced technology community founded by the nation's leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 provides a collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to solve common technology challenges, and to develop innovative solutions in support of their educational, research, and community service missions. For more information, visit http://www.internet2.edu.
InCommon®, operated by Internet2®, serves the U.S. education and research communities, supporting a common framework of trust services, including the U.S. identity management trust federation for research and education, a community-driven Certificate Service, an Assurance Program providing higher levels of trust, and a multifactor authentication program. InCommon has more than 450 participants, including higher education institutions and research organizations, and their sponsored partners. For more information, see www.incommon.org.
About OARnet
A member of the Ohio Technology Consortium at the Ohio Board of Regents, the Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet) provides technology solutions for Ohio's education, public broadcasting, health care and government communities. Since 1987, OARnet has identified and deployed shared services that reduce costs, deliver quality programs, increase productivity and improve customer service. Communities voluntarily participate in the OARnet consortium because they value these benefits and services. Ultimately, OARnet promotes community and economic development by expanding access to affordable technology.
About Fischer International Identity
Fischer International was founded in 1982 by Addison Fischer, a security visionary whose many accomplishments are recognized globally. Fischer International is the leader in cloud-based identity management and has a distinguished history of providing unparalleled value through its innovation and thought leadership in the security industry. Fischer continues its technology leadership and innovation with its identity services platform that makes identity management cost effective for the masses. It simplifies identity management, scales seamlessly from the smallest institutions to the largest university systems, and can be implemented either as a traditional on-premise deployment or via the Identity as a Service® cloud.
Trademark Notice
Fischer International, Fischer International Identity, Identity as a Service, Ignite IT, Ignite Federation and IaaS are the trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Fischer International Identity.
IAM Online – CIFER: IAM Solutions For the Community From the Community
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
3 pm ET / 2 pm CT / 1 pm MT / Noon PT
www.incommon.org/iamonline
The CIFER project (www.ciferproject.org) goal is to make radical improvements in higher education Identity and Access Management (IAM) capability, ease of integration, and affordability. CIFER is an agile, comprehensive, federation- and cloud-ready IAM solution suite delivered by and for the higher education community.
CIFER originated from a collaboration among existing open source organizations and builds on existing IAM open source projects. The aim is to create a modular, comprehensive IAM solution specific to higher education and research. You can find out more about CIFER at the project website (the prospectus is particularly informative).
This session will introduce you to CIFER, and also outline ways in which you can become involved. It will also showcase how campuses are beginning to use CIFER to address the challenges of IAM infrastructure and how CIFER is lowering the risks and increasing the benefits.
Please plan to join us! You'll find more information about the presentation at www.incommon.org/iamonline.
Speakers
Dedra Chamberlin, University of California San Francisco and University of California Berkeley
Keith Hazelton, University of Wisconsin Madison
Host and Moderator
Tom Barton, University of Chicago
Connecting
We use Adobe Connect for slide sharing and audio: http://internet2.adobeconnect.com/iam-online. For more details, including back-up phone bridge information, see www.incommon.org/iamonline.
ABOUT IAM Online
IAM Online is a monthly online education series including essentials of federated identity management, hot topics from the EDUCAUSE Identity and Access Management Working Group, and emerging topics in IAM. Experts provide overviews, answer questions and lead discussions. IAM is brought to you by InCommon in cooperation with Internet2 and the EDUCAUSE Identity and Access Management Working Group.