Notes from the Quilt InCommon Pilots BoFat Technology Exchange, Oct. 30, 2014
Welcome
Mark Scheible welcomed the group and presented overview slides. See https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QohPvuLkmhVJt6VomuCvytByfgQhehnVl7XkYqz2Ghg/edit#slide=id.g4a51dc43c_00
Pilots Benefits
Shaun Abshere, WiscNet, noted that one benefit of the Quilt InCommon Pilots work has been good relationships built and informal sharing between those involved. The Illinois pilot and the Nebraska pilots have been having regular communication and conference calls to assist each other in a variety of ways.
MCNC Pilot Update
Mark Scheibe noted that the goal of the MCNC pilot is to provide a K12 credential to access resources at a Community College. For more info on the MCNC Pilot, see https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/download/attachments/46499323/MCNC-Pilot-Feb6-2014.pdf
The MCNC pilot is having issues due to Moodle endpoint limitation.
It may be possible to get federation working with the ORGSYC servicehttp://www.orgsync.com/
OARnet Pilot Update
Mark Beadles reported on the OARnet pilot. https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/display/InCQuiltFed/OARnet
Focus has been on a large Appalachian region that is under-served, where there is
a strong need for better educational services.
The OARnet pilot has been working w Fischer International Identity http://www.fischerinternational.com/
Fischer has set up a front-end SP in front of some key applications to provide single sign on.
Those who have adopted it have been successful. Once you get this front-end set up, it works well.
There's a hope for increased adoption. Currently out of 23 community colleges, 3 have adopted the solution.
OARnet has a case study they may be able to share with the community. MarkB will check if this can be shared.
Question about AD
Are most schools using Active Directory?
In NC, about 60-70% are using AD, others are using mix between OPEN LDAP
in Wisconsin it's 90% or higher using AD
Federation Partnership Business Models Development Effort
The Business Models Work being done with MCNC and InCommon will help to do the federation piece within InCommon. For more info see https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/display/InCQuiltFed/Federation+Partnership+Business+Models+Work
MCNC working on the Full Steward Model with InCommon
Note the use of the term "Represented Constituents"
Could be a state system ( a Dept. of Ed) or a state org or a regional network
Mark: Also the use of the word "Steward" is important. It is a reminder that
the institutions still "own" their people (the identities of their students for example).
They are not giving up ownership to some consortium.
Federation as a Service to Serve Smaller NRENS in GEANT
Valter Nord, GEANT, presented work on Federation as a Service being done in GEANT.
See the resources here:
Aim is to get more federations created where there are none
GEANT has an effort like Net+ : GEANT Cloud Services
Leverage on Procurement
But to access the services, you must have an identity federation
So that was part of the background for this Federation as a Service effort
Still need IDP installed at each institution
Then Federations as a service is the metadata aggregator and federates
The did a survey, asking "what's holding you back?"
Responses: Technical, Money, No services we need
Valter also shared information on a graphical tool to see how many people are using each service-
Open source
See http://flog.sunet.se/event/websso/
Federation is being set up for K12 in Sweden ,
running a pilot, going into production phase
Here is a website in Swedish https://www.skolfederation.se/