NSTIC to Establish a Steering Group that is Private Sector Led

The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) National Program Office has issued its “Recommendations For Establishing An Identity Ecosystem Governance Structure.”  The report is in response to an earlier Notice of Inquiry (NOI) and follows a workshop on the subject.  EDUCAUSE, Internet2, and InCommon submitted comments that were featured prominently in the final recommendations.

“A core tenet of the NSTIC is that its implementation must be led by the private sector,” according to the report.  Key recommendations from the topic areas identified in the NOI are as follows:

• Steering Group Initiation:  the private sector is to lead and the government will serve as a partner by providing initial financial assistance for administrative and operational support.
• Steering Group Structure:  a Plenary and a Management Council will be created with mutually supporting roles and dispersed decision-making responsibilities.
• Stakeholder Representation:  the governance structure will seek balanced representation, securing individual privacy, advocating for underrepresented participants, and preventing the exercise of undue influence and will be facilitated by a number of additional safeguards – 1) a privacy coordination committee; 2) an ombudsman; 3) operating principles; 4) one member, one vote; and 5) multiple pathways to participation.
• International Coordination:  the steering group will coordinate with representatives from ongoing and planned international identity efforts, standards development organizations, trade organizations, and international departments of member entities in order to leverage lessons learned and broadly recognized technical standards.

EDUCAUSE, along with Internet2 and InCommon, will continue to monitor the evolution of the NSTIC Plenary and Management Council and will help to facilitate higher education participation and representation at the appropriate time in the process.