MAKING FEDERATIONS WORK EFFECTIVELY TOGETHER

A SHORT HISTORY OF REFEDS

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Nicole Harris, REFEDS Coordinator number 2

FAM12, 6th November 2012

IN THE BEGINNING…

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IN THE BEGINNING…

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FEDERATION LANDSCAPE

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5498 entities registered within 34 federations

HOW WOULD I SUMMARISE OUR EXPERIENCE?

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OTHER PROBLEMS?

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HOW WE LEARNED TO STOP (TALKING) AND LOVE THE BOMB

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REFEDS EPIPHANY, 2010

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• If we want stuff to happen, we need:• Money;• Workpackages;• Decision Makers;• Minions; • Focus.

• From 2010, REFEDS has been funded by several NRENS / FEDERATIONS to help carry work forward.

• Has established a steering committee, plans, reporting.

• Is helping to make change happen.

IS IT REALLY WORKING?

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REFEDS AS A VO

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BEING AN SP ADMINISTRATOR

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https://tnc2012.terena.org/core/presentation/106

TERENA AS A SERVICE PROVIDER

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SORRY

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WHAT DOES REFEDS DO?

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REF1: Raising the Profile of REFEDS.REF2: Barriers to Effective Federation Use.REF3: Boundary Solutions.REF4: Federation Harmonisation.REF5: Interfederation.REF6: Identity Assurance.

BARRIERS – FEDERATION POLICIES

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Wouldn’t it be great if these were standardised and simplified?

REFEDS POLICY REVIEW

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• Painstakingly taking apart every clause in every federation policy.

• Mapping these to generic content ‘blocks’ and ‘elements’ within each block.

• Making recommendations about structure and unnecessary language.

• NOT a legal review.

• Working with GEANT on a lite version of a policy template.

DISCOVERY PROJECT

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DISCOVERY PROJECT

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PEER (1)

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Federations have a variety of roles relating to the management of metadata:

• Metadata Registrar;• Metadata Aggregator;• Metadata Publisher.

As well as fulfilling other roles:

• Technical support;• Auditor / Vetting; • Infrastructure. Etc.

UK FEDERATION METADATA AGGREGATION

21http://iay.org.uk/blog/2012/08/uk-federation-metadata-aggregation

PEER (2)

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• A metadata registry – a bucket;

• Can be used as a registry for an individual federation;

• Can be used as a registry for multiple federations;

• Sps only have to register and maintain in 1 place;

• Federations can still accept members, but fetch metadata from another place;

• Federations can parse, enhance, mangle metadata as they wish once fetched.

PEER (3)

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PEER TO REEP

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• REEP will be a service instance of PEER run for research and education federations and their entities.

• Pilot for 2012 / 13.

• Proof of concept to see if federations and entities can cope with this work flow.

• Follow REFEDS or your federation for more information.

REEP or eduGAIN?

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• REEP is just a metadata registry – still relies on other parties to publish the metadata.

• Main benefit for SPs in multiple federations at the moment.

• Not full interfederation, but a lightweight improvement on current situation.

• Doesn’t address policy.

The Message? Don’t Sue Unicorns

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Questions?

http://access.jiscinvolve.org/wp/you-cant-sue-unicorns/