[OpenID board] November 12, 2020 OpenID Board Call Minutes

[Mike Jones]

November 12, 2020 OpenID Board Call Minutes

Present:
Don Thibeau, Executive Director
Mike Jones
John Bradley
Wesley Dunnington
John Summers
Kosuke Koiwai and Takao Kojima
Takehisa Shibata
Dale Olds
George Fletcher
Nat Sakimura
Arvind Kumar Garg

Absent:
Bjorn Hjelm
Filip Verley

Visitors:
Mike Leszcz, OpenID Foundation
Tom Smedinghoff, Locke Lord LLP


1.       New Verizon Media Board Representative
Arvind Kumar Garg introduced himself.  He leads the membership platform, which is payment, identity, and privacy.  He joined Yahoo ~11 years ago.


2.       Transition Preparation Actions
Don reported on some of the actions taken to assist in the executive director transition.  We had discussions with Jamie Clark of OASIS and Lory Yeakle of Global Inventures.  We have worked on a job description.  We've reached out to Women in Identity and IDPro.


3.       Liaison Updates
We are maintaining active liaison relationships to promote our continuing relevance and leadership.

The Global Open Finance Center of Excellence (GOFCoE) would like to relist our FAPI certifications as part of its proposed listing of open API standards.

The GSMA is considering where to do future Mobile Connect standards work.  The MODRNA working group is coordinating closely with them.

We have established a liaison relationship with the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF), with Kristina Yasuda as our liaison officer.

The Financial Data Exchange (FDX) has endorsed OpenID Connect and FAPI.  They also want to re-list our certification results.

We are working to establish a liaison relationship with the CARIN Alliance, which is in the healthcare space.  The plan to use OpenID Connect.  We are encouraging them to also utilize the OpenID Certification program.

We have agreed to a liaison relationship with the Japanese Government Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.  We plan to improve eKYC for Legal Entity scenarios together.


4.       Reuse of Certification Listings
Four organizations have expressed interest in relisting our certification results.  We are investigating licensing this information in a constructive manner.  We may also be able to obtain some compensation for this licensing.  Services could include permission to relist certifications, real-time notification of changes, and quality control reports - possibly on a quarterly basis.  These relistings are important to these organizations, which are requiring certification to OpenID standards as part of their deployments.  We could also license the use of OpenID trademarks in association with these listings.

We have developed a draft licensing agreement.  We are proposing $5,000/year for access to relisting certifications for a standard.  For instance, FDX might license both OpenID Connect and FAPI certifications.

We might consider changes to the way listings are shown to facilitate this relicensing.  We are letting licensees link to the underlying data (the .zip and .tar files) but not copy it, as we are the only party that those performing the certifications gave permission to post their submissions.

Nat Sakimura reported that the FAPI working group requested that the FAPI listings be shown separately and the entries be put in a database.  Mike Jones expressed concerns with changing from a simple system where entries are published by editing a WordPress page to one where database entries are required and database query results are rendered.  That would require new Web development for the site and a more complex data entry and listing process.  Mike Leszcz said that we are early in discussions on how this might happen.

Don reported that we would eventually want automatic synchronization with licensees.  He said that we're working towards an additional revenue stream beyond the existing certification fees.


5.       Certification Program Update
Mike Leszcz updated us on the status of the certification program.  We reduced the contract amounts by 50%.  Hans Zandbelt has left the team.  Serkan Özkan remains.  Having a "minimum viable team" is putting stresses on the team.  We are considering adding an additional programming contractor.

FAPI certifications have picked up significantly over the past few months.  Bank certifications tend to require a lot of hand-holding, which increases stresses on the team.  Joseph implementation a submission form, which makes things easier for Banks, which may not have permissions to send e-mail attachments.

[ Don Thibeau, Mike Leszcz, and Tom Smedinghoff left the call at this point ]


6.       Leadership Transition
Bjorn Hjelm updated us on the Executive Director leadership transition.  Lori Yeakle of Global Inventures had suggested we move the split between what Don Thibeau does and what Mike Leszcz does for now, and otherwise maintain the status quo, particularly given the difficulty of reaching out to and interviewing candidates during the pandemic.  During a search committee call yesterday, Don reaffirmed that he believes that the OpenID Foundation needs new leadership.  He wants to facilitate a smooth transition, as he believes in the mission of the Foundation.

Don had suggested that he join the board as a non-executive director during the transition; he currently has the same relationship with OIX.  This will require amending the bylaws to establish this new class of board membership.  The EC will work with Tom Smedinghoff on the bylaws modifications.  John Bradley pointed out that Don would expect to be compensated for that role - possibly at half his current salary, and that we would likely not keep him on indefinitely once we find a new ED.  Once we find a new ED, we'll want to take a look at our staffing expenses overall.  Mike Jones reported that the hiring committee feels that we should wait to make some kinds of decisions until we know who we want to make an offer to and what their situation is and abilities are.  For instance, some would want a full-time position and some would not.

Bjorn encouraged people to identify candidates and bring them to the attention of the hiring committee.

Nat proposed a December 10th board meeting.  The board concurred.

Mike Jones is serving as editor of the job description, which was initially drafted by Lory Yeakel.  George Fletcher is getting Mike feedback on the draft.  Following that, Mike plans to circulate the draft to the board for a quick review.  Then we should proceed to start using it within a few days.

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