[bingo] Bingo strawman and next steps

[Drummond Reed]

Since Nat is having trouble accessing Paul's strawman document, I just temporarily pasted in a copy below so we're all looking at the same page.

Since Paul chairs the ICF board and I'm ED there, he and I have been discussing this for several months. I've also discussed the topic in one way or another with almost everyone currently in the group with the exception of Matthew (and that's only because I'm not directly involved with Kantara yet (although OIX and Kantara are now in dialog about several potential collaborations).

So perhaps the next step is to see how much consensus there is among this group about Paul's strawman proposal below. If there is a general feeling that it makes sense, and is a workable direction, then we could discuss out how to move from the strawman to the "mud" stage.

So: thoughts on the strawman below?

=Drummond



************************

Common Ground

The intent

• Form a new, consolidated non-profit org for open identity
• Consolidate at least and at first: ICF, Kantara, and OIDF
  
• How about OIX? Identity Commons?
  

Purpose of this document

Strawman stage: This document is intended to circulate privately among a small group of industry folks with the purpose of creating a kernel of consensus before we go to mud. Mailing list/group: http://groups.google.com/group/consolidated-identity

Mud stage: If the strawman "congeals", the board of each existing org would designate 1 or 2 official representatives to put together a concrete plan for "Bingo" (codename for new org much as "IDTBD" was the codename for the new org that became Kantara) and how to transition into it. Hopefully that would be a simpler and faster process that what Kantara of what we learned there, and because of increasingly aligned interests.

Brick stage: Once the plan was ready, each of the org's boards would need to ratify it and a ton of merger work would begin. Probably lasting a year.

Mission

To advance all work necessary to establish open identity infrastructure that works cross-domain and cross-network

Organizational structure

1. Working groups (WGs)
   
2. Leadership Council (LC) made of up reps from WGs
3. Board of Trustees (BoT) made up of corporate sponsors

Working Groups

1. Open to all members (anyone signing a contribution agreement?)
   
2. Elect their own reps to the LC

Principles

1. Minimize operational overhead and maximize Working Group investment/effort

Cross-WG Objectives/Functions

1. Outward marketing: website, etc. the usual
   
2. Infrastructure to support WGs: lists, etc. the usual
   
3. Operating services: TBD
   

Key Benefits of a Consolidated Non-Profit for Open Identity

• Deliver a unified set of marketing messages about the evolving open identity landscape (for example, the "sweet spot" analysis that Paul describes in the blog post linked below)
• Develop and operate a consolidated Certification Listing Service (which currently OIX
  and Kantara are collaborating on)
  
• Develop and operate a consolidated Certification Program for all trust frameworks (including IAF)
  
• Develop a consolidated open source Interoperability Test Suite for all open identity protocols

Further Reading

• To soften the beach Paul wrote: http://www.incontextblog.com/?p=581