2024-04-24 Steering Committee Discussion Meeting Notes

Attendance

• Daniel Bachenheimer (Accenture Global Solutions Limited)
• Steve McCown (Anonyome Labs)
• Darrell O'Donnell (Continuum Loop)
• Dr Andre Kudra (esatus)
• Wenjing Chu (Futurewei 
• Drummond Reed (Gen Digital)
• Karla McKenna (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation)
• Caryn Van Exel (GS1 US)
• John Jordan (Province of British Columbia)
• Judith Fleenor (Executive Director, ToIP)
• Michelle Janata (Linux Foundation)

Agenda 

• Recording
  • Link

• Presentation (Google Slides)

Antitrust Policy & Member Participation

Attendees are reminded to adhere to the meeting agenda and not participate in activities prohibited under antitrust and competition laws*

› Only members of Trust Over IP who have signed the necessary agreements and charters are permitted to participate in this activity beyond an observer role

* Examples of types of actions that are prohibited at Linux Foundation meetings and in connection with Linux Foundation activities are described in the Linux Foundation Antitrust Policy available at http://www.linuxfoundation.org/antitrust-policy

New Steering Member

Key State Capital

Key State Capital is an investment organization that funds start-up in the decentralized identity space and has a vested interest in the use of the Keri Suite and our other specifications. 

Future Planning

Option 1: If we are able to secure one large Steering Level paid member by the end of June.  Retain Judith, at half-time for 4 months with a 4 month contract, this would get us through the summer, and early fall conferences, and perhaps the ability to getting more paying Steering Level Members. 
Option 2: If we get no new Steering Level paid members, recruit volunteers to do the only the very necessary parts of the ED job, coordination of meetings, etc.   Leave new member recruitment up to all members.  Lean on Michelle for support, as needed. 
Option 3: Magic happens and we get 3 new Steering Level paid members, business as usual.     Magic Happened!  With KeyState Capitals supplemental sponsorship to our operating fund, we have the funds to keep a fulltime ED for a four month contract.  We still need at least one more large Steering Level Member to carry to end of year, and to add to other budget categories. 

Upcoming SC Meeting Dates:

May 8th - Steering Committee Plenary - Approve Budget Reforecast - Welcome/Intro presentation from KeyState Capital 
May 15th - All Members Meeting
Findynet presentation on Trust Ecosystems  with Markus Hautala and Bo Harald 
May 22nd - Steering Committee Discussion - possible presentation of  Interactive Decentralized Landscape Map

June 12th - Steering Committee Plenary  (Cancelled - During European Identity Week) 
June 26th - All Members Working Group Updates    (Moved from June 19th due to DICE) 
June 26th - Steering Committee combined Plenary & Discussion Meeting. (Possible second budget reforecast, if needed)

GenAI Tools

Reminder July, a month of AI…  All Members special Topics and revisit the AIMTF proposals, etc. 

Trademark Registration 

Our Wordmark Registration has been completed in the USA. 
To Maintain Trademark
Between the fifth and sixth years after the registration date File a Declaration of Use and/or Excusable Nonuse under section 8 
Between the ninth and 10th years after the registration date File the first Declaration of Use and/or Excusable Nonuse and an Application for Renewal under sections 8 and 9
Every 10 years after that (between the 19th and 20th years, 29th and 30th years, etc.)  File subsequent Declarations of Use and/or Excusable Nonuse and an Application for Renewal under sections 8 and 9
https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/maintain/keeping-your-registration-alive#What-happens-next-and-timelines

Spec Approval Process and Roadmap to ISO

We have done a good job of defining the initial stages of work product development. 
Now we need to define what is expected for a spec be eligible to move from “ToIP Approved” to use of the JDF/LF Pass Process. 

ISO registration does not necessarily help Adoption 
Getting ready to submit The single most important piece of pre-work before committing to the submission process is to ask your project why they want to apply for ISO registration.  Sending a specification to ISO creates a long-term responsibility for your project.  Once the specification is accepted, you have to curate the specification, you have to make sure it remains current, and you have to maintain it with ISO.  So, it is a really good idea to know why you need to turn your Specification into an ISO specification and what you are going to do with it once it is accepted.  PAS submissions have to be re-balloted every five years, and you want to keep your local version in step with the ISO version in the interim.  ISO registration does imply high quality and international recognition, but it does not automatically bring adoption.  You should ask the project if your time is better spent building a user community to drive innovation and adoption.  ISO registration does not do much to help those features.  Also, the JDF gatekeepers are going to ask you the same questions so it makes sense to be prepared. 

Real World Adoption required to use PAS Process 
The Explanatory Report is a questionnaire from JTC1 with a series of questions that help the reviewers understand what we are sending them.  This is an important document as it tells the reviewers a lot of information about who the specification is for, how it can be used, dependencies on other specifications, levels of adoption of the specification at the time of submission. The reviewers of the Explanatory report are experienced and skeptical.  Often they are drawn from subcommittees that have subject matter expertise on your technology.  In some cases, your submission may collide with or contradict a similar specification being developed in their SC (more about how we deal with that later in this treatise).  It is important to be fact-based, accurate and circumspect about the claims you make about the importance of your specification. 
 
This is important.  The hardest questions in the Explanatory Report are about adoption.  Most specifications are fairly new and adoption is low.  Our recommendation to all the projects is to avoid taking a freshly baked specification to JTC1.  Adoption statistics contain a lot of information for the reviewers.  If you cannot point to users, you have a good idea, but you do not necessarily have a real specification.  It is likely that the JDF gatekeeping process will press your project to not send an unproven specification to JTC1.  We recommend you do the hard work of bringing field-proof of the specification before you ask to start the submission process.  Remember that at least a few of the ISO reviewers are likely working on a similar specification, so they probably know as much about the subject area as you do. 

Communication Plan

ToIP V3 Diagram 
Trust Canvas  Guide Book 
Mini-YouTube  Webinar Series Highlighting Key  Points

VERY WELL RECEIVED at IIW

Europe travel - June
EIC -  ToIP panel and Judith attending SIDI pre EIC day.  June 3-8th, Berlin
 Identity Week Europe June 11-12th, Amsterdam
 DICE, Judith attending June 18-19th, Zurich

Use Europe to promote our specs, our vision, and do member recruitment.   
What messages does the SC want delivered?

Keri Suite (KERI, CESR, ACDC) - BLOG Posted
Issuer Requirements Guide  - BLOG Posted
ToIP Trust Registry Protocol Specification - BLOG Posted
ToIP Trust Spanning Protocol Specification - BLOG Posted
HXWG/IPTF - Wallet Survey Results BLOG draft presented to Comms Committee review
IIW Review BLOG? 
GLEIF Welcome BLOG when they desire
Key State Capital Welcome BLOG when they desire
ToIP Technology Architecture Specification -  BLOG expected post IIW

What do we plan to do to promote our specs that have come out and get implementers using out implementers drafts? 
Pipeline:
Issuer Requirements Guide for Governance Frameworks of Verifiable Credentials 
Keri Suite (KERI, CESR, ACDC)
ToIP Technology Architecture Specification
ToIP Trust Spanning Protocol Specification
ToIP Trust Registry Protocol Specification
ToIP did:webs Method Specification
ToIP X.509 Verifiable Identifier Specification
ToIP Profile Discovery Specification

Upcoming Meetings

Steering Committee - Plenary Meeting - Wednesday May 8th 
noon PDT / 3pm EST / 19:00 UTC / 21:00 CEST

All Members Meeting - Guest -FINDYNET  - Wednesday  May 15th
10 am PDT / 1 pm EST / 17:00 UTC / 19:00 CEST

Steering Committee - Discussion - Wednesday April  24th 
noon PDT / 3pm EST / 19:00 UTC / 21:00 CEST

Communications Committee  - TBD
1pm PDT / 4pm EST / 20:00 UTC / 22:00 CEST