*MACE Conference Call*
April 22, 2002

*Attendees*

Bob Morgan (chair) - Washington
Ton Verschuren - SURFnet
Steven Carmody - Brown
Michael Gettes - Georgetown
Scott Cantor - OSU
Ken Klingenstein - Colorado/Internet2
Keith Hazelton - Wisconsin
Ellen Vaughan - Internet2
David Wasley - UCOP
Jim Jokl - Virginia
Ben Chinowsky (scribe) - Internet2

*Discussion*

The meeting opened with a short discussion of the state of NMI. A May 16 meeting has been scheduled to bring together CIOs and computer-science people to critique the project's first year and set directions for the second. David noted that a major NMI issue at UC -- and, he suspects, at other universities as well -- is whether NMI should focus more on campus IT infrastructure in support of grids, or more on campus IT infrastructure more generally. David suggested taking the latter approach, as it both includes grid support (Ken noted that NSF's draft report on 21st-century infrastructure reaffirms the centrality of grids) and allows broader use of existing funds.

Bob and Ken gave an update on the Federal eAuthentication effort. Bob noted that if, as appears to be the case, this project is focusing on how best to make use of existing systems such as Passport, that's something new that bears watching. $2 million has been committed to this effort.

Most of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of MACE document processes. Bob observed that, given the increasing volume of documents being produced by MACE-related projects, this issue is becoming increasingly urgent. The campus-middleware community needs a body to review submitted documents, ensure coherence among them (a parallel with the IESG was suggested here), stamp them as final (Bob: "we lose big if docs don't get finalized"), and make them widely available. The time consumed by these functions is significant, so dedicated staff support will be needed. [AI] Bob will write up a proposal for MACE document handling. Bob would like to see MACE-related documents branded consistently, rather than, e.g. some being labeled as Internet2 products and others being labeled as Internet/EDUCAUSE products. There was general agreement that a joint Internet2/EDUCAUSE brand would be ideal; [AI] Ken will discuss the issue of joint Internet2/EDUCAUSE branding of middleware documents with the appropriate representatives of each organization.

Finally there was a short discussion of a possible role for MACE in creating broader awareness of HIPAA issues. Bob observed that, while all academic medical centers have HIPAA committees, "confusion reigns," and having a clear path to the Feds to get questions answered would be very helpful. Ken suggested setting up a regular conference call with campus HIPAA chairs and relevant Feds; there was general agreement that this would be useful. [AI] Ken will see if participants in the medical middleware effort are interested in setting up an Ed/Fed HIPAA roundtable.

*Action Items*

[AI] Bob will write up a proposal for MACE document handling.
[AI] Ken will discuss the issue of joint Internet2/EDUCAUSE branding of middleware documents with the appropriate representatives of each organization.
[AI] Ken will see if participants in the medical middleware effort are interested in setting up an Ed/Fed HIPAA roundtable.