About Us & Our WorkREFEDSThe group represents the requirements of research and education in the ever-growing space of access and identity management, working with and influencing the direction of organisations such as Kantara, OIX and Identity Commons on behalf of our participants.REFEDS ParticipantsREFEDS participants are from a wide range of backgrounds, but all share an interest in developing access and identity management technology, policies and processes. Many participants represent national identity federations and many come from National Research and Education Networks ('NRENS'). National Research and Education NetworksKantaraOIXIdentity CommonsTERENAREFEDS is managed by TERENA, Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association, who provide secretariat support for the group. REFEDS meets twice a year, and manages its work throughout the year via the REFEDS wiki, the REFEDS mailing list and via its working groups. To be the voice that articulates the mutual needs of research and education identity federations worldwide.Issues & TopicsAddress issues and topics such as interfederation, privacy, assurance, relationships with partner communities, marketing and support of emerging federations.REFEDS CommunityAbove all else, REFEDS is a community of practioners actively engaged in access and identity work within their home countries and supportive of standards-compliant developments to enhance international collaboration. Access PractionersIdentity PractionersREFEDS will address issues and topics based on the interests and requirements of its participants. This includes mostly policy, but also some technical and outreach topics in areas such as interfederation, privacy, assurance, relationships with partner communities, marketing and support of emerging federations. REFEDS will seek to develop consensus on approaches that work for all its participating federations. REFEDS Work Areas -- Every year, REFEDS establishes a series of priority work areas each lead by a community expert who convenes a small working group. The efforts undertaken by each work area are defined by the participants and may manage small projects, produce briefing papers or keep a watching brief on the environment. The current work areas are listed below. For more information about the work areas please visit the REFEDS wiki and refer to REFEDS Business Case, which defines the rationale for sponsoring REFEDS. https://refeds.org/docs/refeds-business-case_v1_1.pdfCoordination & ManagementProgress REFEDS position as an important player within the access and identity management space internationally. 1Baseline AssuranceDefine Baseline Assurance within Federations. 2FederationsAIM: To improve the understanding of the base assurance of federations and to improve the usage of federation infrastructure based on increased assurance understanding and implementation. eResearchEngaging with eResearch3Identity Federations CommunityeduGAINAIM: To work on the recommendations put forward by the FIM paper. This work item will identify specific topics and will offer proposals on how they could be addressed by the Identity Federations community, eduGAIN and the related e-Research communities and o offer an international forum where specific e-Research use-cases (i.e., LIGO) can be brought forward and discussed.Metadata FlowUnderstand and Improve Metadata Flow Across Federations.4FederationsFederation MembersAIM: To increase the exchange of metadata across federations and to improve the understanding of interfederation practises and process amongst federation members. Infrastructure & SupportProvide infrastructure and support for evolving ideas and areas in the REFEDS community.5REFEDS communityREFEDS Specialist Working Groups This includes the closed Federation Operators Group.REFEDS Federation Operators GroupTERENA operates a closed mailing list for the REFEDS Federation Operators Group, to facilitate open discussions about operational issues of running Research and Education Identity Federations. https://refeds.terena.org/index.php/FOG Research Identity FederationsEducation Identity Federations2013-08-02https://refeds.org/about.htmlOwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net