Internet2 fall12

The Future of Federation Policy?

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Nicole Harris

Internet2 Fall Member Meeting, 02 October 2012

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What are the problems?

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• We don’t know what to call them;• We don’t know what they are;• We don’t agree on how to structure them;• We don’t agree on the content;• We all start from scratch when writing them;• We ask the wrong questions to the wrong people.

Apart from that it is ALLLL fine.

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Proposal?

https://refeds.terena.org/index.php/Federation_Policy_Best_Practise_Approach

Federation Policy Best Practise Approach

• Analysis of 15 federation policies;• Content ‘blocks’ for policy areas defined;• Preferred structure / ORDER proposed;• Example wording given;• Chose your areas, leave out others.

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A: STUCTURE. GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT HOW YOUR FEDERATION WORKS

• RFC2119. • Definitions. • Background and Purpose. • Governance. • Eligibility. • How to Join. • How to Withdraw.

STATUS: COMPLETE

SECTION A: Structure

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B: TERMS OF USE. WHAT EVERYONE IS ALLOWED AND NOT ALLOWED TO DO

• Terms of Use (IdP). • Terms of Use (SP). • Termination / Dispute Resolution. • Logging. • Data Protection. • Audit. • Use of Attributes. • Operator Rights / Role. • Interfederation / Publish rights.

STATUS: IN PROGRESS

SECTION B: Terms of Use

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C: LEGAL. ALL THE LEGAL STUFF

• Liability. • Jurisdiction and Legal. • Fee schedule. • Copyright.

STATUS: IN PROGRESS

SECTION C: Legal

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• What am I signing?

• Eligibility mistakes;

• Publication (interfederation);

• Enabling exchange or protection your XXXX?

• Writing policy without all the information;

• Ignoring interoperability issues.

Common Mistakes

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Learning from Your Mistakes – eduGAIN (1)

Getting your metadata in a tangle

“Any metadata file which makes use of parts of metadata published by eduGAIN MUST include either a reference with a URL to the

eduGAIN Metadata Terms of Use [ToU] or the entire ToU text. It MUST be placed at the top of the metadata file formatted as an XML

comment.”

• Over-specification of downstream metadata.  • eduGain metadata must be managed separately. • Cannot be managed as part of a hierarchical aggregate.

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Learning from Your Mistakes – eduGAIN (2)

Backing yourself in to a corner

"Publications under clause 1 above will be at the request of the Member who controls each Entity." 

• Over constrained management of metadata inclusion. • Requires members to understand they are using eduGain. • Requires a specific aggregate for eduGain.

• LET THE METADATA FLOW.

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Learning from Your Mistakes – eduGAIN (3)

Not realising the implications

• eduGain requires you to apply their terms of use to any metadata you republish.

• Fundamental misunderstanding of how metadata is managed and signed.

• Should only apply to the public metadata file. • Don’t tell federations it is mandatory to protect themselves in a

certain way.

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Next Steps?

• Surfacing issues Making changes.

• Will any EXISTING federations adopt?

• Working with the new technical models (eduGAIN, PEER etc.)

• More support for SPs, making sense of federations.