Open Identity Exchange (OIX) and Kantara Initiative recently announced that they will begin collaborating on digital trust framework development to build and promote adoption of a robust online trust ecosystem. Digital trust frameworks enable trust in transactions such as logins, registrations, and online eCommerce by allowing digital identity credentials produced by one site to be accepted at other sites.
OIX executive members include AT&T, CA, Equifax, Google, PayPal, VeriSign, and Verizon.
Kantara Initiative and OIX, the industry’s two leading organizations focused on trust framework infrastructure, have agreed to the following high-level goals for collaboration:
- Develop a joint approach to federation services and trust framework certification that takes advantage of the complementary features of the Kantara Initiative Identity Assurance Framework (IAF) and the OIX Trust Framework Platform.
- Develop technology and policy best practice guidelines in response to growing needs for trust frameworks spanning all types of networks, transactions, and jurisdictions around the globe.
- Identify additional trust framework infrastructure, operations, and testing areas of synergy.
The two organizations have agreed to jointly submit their own certification assessment results into an operational database which would be hosted by OIX to provide a consolidated view of certification status. An early version of the operational database instance will be a part of the Burton Catalyst Open Identity for Business demo event in July 2010.
Additionally, Kantara Initiative will begin offering their IAF Profiles as trust framework options within the OIX Trust Framework Platform which will allow OIX member companies to obtain certification against IAF Profiles and have these certifications included directly in the OIX Certification Listing Service.
To further develop this collaborative relationship, representatives of the Kantara Initiative will join the OIX Advisory Board, and OIX will join the Kantara Initiative Identity Assurance Working Group (IAWG).
