MACE Conference Call, June 18, 2001

*MACE Conference Call*
June 18, 2001

*Attendees*

Bob Morgan (chair) - Washington
Ken Klingenstein - Colorado/Internet2
Jim Jokl - Virginia
David Wasley - UCOP
Keith Hazelton - Wisconsin
Michael Gettes - Georgetown
Paul Hill - MIT
Renee Frost - Michigan/Internet2
Ellen Vaughan - Internet2
Steven Carmody - Brown
Neal McBurnett - Avaya
Ben Chinowsky (scribe) - Internet2

*Discussion*

The meeting opened with a discussion of the need to expand MACE's membership and the possibility of creating new MACEs. Ken stressed the importance of improving coordination of middleware activity both internationally and, within the US, among non-CSG members. The already high level of middleware activity in Europe (in particular, the Europeans are looking at adapting eduPerson) makes it a natural place to begin the process of internationalizing MACE. [AI] Michael will sound out TERENA on the idea of creating a European counterpart to MACE, and propose that TERENA participate in MACE until such a group is set up. There was a short discussion of issues likely to arise as a result of MACE broadening its membership within the US; it was agreed that this is likely to lead to an increasing diversity of modes of participation, with some members functioning more as liaisons to independent work (as with Von and the Grid) than as coordinators of joint work. Ken noted that Von will be continuing as the Grid's representative on MACE. [AI] On the next call, MACE will continue its discussion of issues around expanding its membership, then vote on who to ask to join; if those selected are not interested, further votes will be taken as necessary.

Ken observed that MACE is emerging as a model for other Internet2 working groups, and Bob's middleware document standards are being taken up as standards for Internet2 as a whole. Ellen is working on guidelines for middleware working group chairs; [AI] Ellen will send MACE a draft one-page overview of middleware working-group processes, for discussion on the next call. Renee announced that a new mailing list, mw-service@internet2.edu, has been set up to deal with administrative requests such as conference call scheduling. Ken noted that Internet2 staff are looking for a replacement for listproc; [AI] Steven will talk to Mike LaHaye about the possibility of Internet2 deploying an LDAP-enabled list server. It was agreed that from now on minutes of middleware working group meetings will carry forward unfinished action items from previous meetings. Bob is working on updating the document standards to deal with multi-author documents, acknowledgements, and naming conventions for finished documents. Keith suggested that MACE make a priority of updating its OIDs documentation; [AI] Keith will forward Ryan Muldoon's material on OIDs to Ben, for incorporation into http://middleware.internet2.edu/docs/a-brief-guide-to-OIDs.doc. [AI] Ben will post a revised version of http://middleware.internet2.edu/docs/a-brief-guide-to-OIDs.doc for discussion on the next MACE call.

The discussion then moved on to project updates.
- Shibboleth is experiencing delays in getting coding started; IBM has assured the Shibboleth group of its continued commitment to the project. Shibboleth is recruiting schools to participate in its pilot deployment, and is working toward final versions of the documentation for the current phase of the project. It was noted that Jeff Hodges of Oblix is now co-chairing the SAML working group, along with Joe Pato of HP.
- Press releases announcing DoDHE are going out tomorrow. Ken noted that DoDHE would be looking for people in schools of information science to do human interface work this fall.
- MACE-Dir is forming several subgroups to deal with pressing areas of work, and is putting together an advisory board.
- Bob has announced the launch of the WebISO working group; PubCookie project manager Nathan Dors has agreed to chair.
- Jim reported that the last HEPKI-TAG meeting had "rather grudgingly" agreed to take on a PKI Lite project. There is concern that PKI Lite could turn out to be a road to nowhere rather than a bridge to a full PKI. PKI Lite will again be a principal topic of discussion on this Wednesday's TAG call.

Finally the group discussed recent and upcoming meetings.
- David and Michael presented at a June 6-8 CREN workshop (http://www.cren.net/semmn/Seminar06MN.html) aimed at showing participants how to set up and run campus directories and PKI. David talked to several people after the meeting and came away with the sense that the meeting had largely failed to accomplish its goal.
- Today's Ed/Fed meeting was loosely structured but informative; the FBCA is now scheduled for launch next week. David noted the unconventional financial model adopted by ACES: certs are free, but relying parties pay to validate them; a signed request is required in order to check the CRL. Ken noted that to the dismay of PKI advocates the Department of Education is going forward with access control based on PINs, and is now mailing them out "by the ton".
- A HEBCA meeting is planned for tomorrow.
- The OMG meets near Boston July 9-13; see http://www.omg.org/registration/registration-tc.htm. Grid services will be a focus; Steven is planning to attend.
- There is a Global Grid Forum meeting (http://www.gridforum.org/) July 15-18 near Washington, DC; they are hoping to reach agreement on a GGF cert policy.
- Paul has been trying to set up a meeting with Microsoft to discuss browser issues around PKI; this looks unlikely to happen before October.

*Action Items*

[AI] 18-June-01 - Michael will sound out TERENA on the idea of creating a European counterpart to MACE, and propose that TERENA participate in MACE until such a group is set up.
[AI] 18-June-01 - On the next call, MACE will continue its discussion of issues around expanding its membership, then vote on who to ask to join; if those selected are not interested, further votes will be taken as necessary.
[AI] 18-June-01 - Ellen will send MACE a draft one-page overview of middleware working-group processes, for discussion on the next call.
[AI] 18-June-01 - Steven will talk to Mike LaHaye about the possibility of Internet2 deploying an LDAP-enabled list server.
[AI] 18-June-01 - Keith will forward Ryan Muldoon's material on OIDs to Ben, for incorporation into http://middleware.internet2.edu/docs/a-brief-guide-to-OIDs.doc.
[AI] 18-June-01 - Ben will post a revised version of http://middleware.internet2.edu/docs/a-brief-guide-to-OIDs.doc for discussion on the next MACE call.
[AI] 04-June-01 - Bob, Keith, and Ken will decide who to invite to form a MACE-Dir advisory board; Ken will draft the invitation and Keith will send it out.
[AI] 04-June-01 - Ken will ask Von Welch and Steve Tuecke if they want to participate in the PKI Labs research conference.
[AI] 04-June-01 - Jim will investigate the possibility of using a project at Virginia for the multi-campus workgroup case in the October 1 Shibboleth demo.
[AI] 04-June-01 - Keith will investigate the possibility of using a project at Wisconsin for the multi-campus workgroup case in the October 1 Shibboleth demo.
[AI] 04-June-01 - Ken will forward Tyler Johnson's VidMid technical action items to Keith.
[AI] 04-June-01 - Ken will organize a conference call with Von and people working on Grid PKI.
[AI] 04-June-01 - Bob will send the list proposed changes to the middleware document standards.