Backplane Protocol Working Group Charter Submission

Keegstra, Greg greg at janrain.com
Tue Jun 5 19:50:30 UTC 2012


This is a formal request to the OpenID Specs Council to review the charter
proposal for creating a Backplane Protocol working group.



Participation and interest in the development of the protocol has grown out
of recent Internet Identity Workshops.  The potential formation of an
OpenID work group is an opportunity to provide awareness about the
Backplane Protocol globally so that more application vendors and website
publishers will have the opportunity to guide its development and
collaborate around use cases.



If there is a positive response from the Specifications Council, we would
like to work with the OIDF to schedule time at the 2012 CIS event in
July to have
more discussions on this topic and to seek additional workgroup members.



I look forward to your review of this charter proposal and welcome feedback
you may have on its scope and purpose.



Regards,

Greg



*
*

*Charter submission for the Backplane Protocol Working Group*

There is an interest in creating an OpenID workgroup to broaden
collaboration in the development of the Backplane Protocol specification.

*Charter Proposal*

Following the OpenID Foundation’s IPR policies and procedures this note
proposes the formation of a new working group chartered to broaden input
into the development of a Backplane Protocol specification.  The proposed
charter is below and may change during the initial feedback period.

*I. Name*

Backplane Protocol Working Group

*II. Statement of Purpose*

Facilitate the creation of a trust framework between end users, websites
and third-party applications such that all can exchange information with
each other in a standardized way.

While the messages exchanged through the Backplane Protocol are not
required to be identity related or reference OpenID-authenticated users,
these represent the most interesting use case and have constituted one of
the main drivers behind the Backplane efforts to date.

If Backplane continues to build momentum and becomes widely adopted for
inter-widget/inter-application identity message exchange, it would benefit
all parties involved if the development of the protocol continued within
the OpenID Foundation.

This workgroup intends to solidify the current proposed protocol  by
ensuring the specifications, reference and production implementations

   - adhere to best practices in online security as it pertains to
   broadcasting of user identity between multiple applications on a website
   - are extensible to support other application scenarios or message types
   to broaden the scope of inter-widget communications beyond identity messages


*III. Background*

Echo conceived the protocol and designed it as an open standard.  They
later partnered with Janrain and together have evolved the protocol,
incorporating feedback received from interested Relying Parties as well as
the community, including the Internet Identity Workshops in the Spring and
Fall of 2011.

The Backplane Exchange Protocol is currently used today by application
vendors including Echo and Janrain and by website
operators<http://backplanex.com/showcase/>including ABC, Discovery
Channel, NBC Universal, Sports Illustrated, The
Washington Post, Universal Music Group and USA Networks.

*IV. Scope*

The initial scope of effort by the working group is to ensure that the
protocol


   - adheres to best practices in online security as it pertains to
   broadcasting of user identity between multiple applications on a website
   - is extensible to support other application scenarios or message types
   to broaden the scope of inter-widget communications beyond identity messages


Scope also involves standardizing the definition and nomenclature of
constructs that describe various aspects of the protocol e.g. message types
or application scenarios,  such that it appeals to the technology community
at large.

Scope does not include definition of additional message types (also
currently known as application scenarios) or recruiting additional members
beyond the initially formed working group.

*V. Specifications*

The core Backplane Exchange protocol specifications can be found at the
URLs below:

Version 2.0 (Latest Work)
Backplane Exchange Specification
2.0<https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=forums&srcid=MTQ2NzA4MzgwMDk0MDY4NDM0MDABMTM2MTI2MTk1ODQ1OTQ4NDI5MTcBNEZCNDAxNUYuODAyMDUwNUBqYW5yYWluLmNvbQEyAQ&authuser=0>
 (draft
13, June 2012, HTML)

Backplane Exchange Specification
2.0<http://backplane.wordpress.janrain.com/files/2012/05/backplane-2_0-draft12.pdf>
(draft 12, May 2012, HTML)
Backplane Exchange Specification
2.0<http://backplane.wordpress.janrain.com/files/2012/05/backplane-2_0-draft12.pdf>
(draft 10, March 2012, HTML)
Backplane Exchange Specification
2.0<http://backplanex.com/documentation/backplane-specification-2-0/>
(draft 07, January 2012, HTML)

Version 1.0 (Currently in Production)
Backplane Exchange Specification
1.2<http://backplanex.com/documentation/backplane-specification-1-2/>(June
2011, HTML)
Backplane Exchange Specification
1.1<http://backplanex.com/documentation/backplane-specification-1-1/>(June
2011, HTML)
Backplane Exchange Specification
1.0<http://backplanex.com/documentation/backplane-specification-1-0>(November
2010, HTML)

*VI. Anticipated Audience*

Interested parties would include:

 ·       Website Operators that need to use third-party applications on
their sites and want to improve usability and interoperability.

·       Relying Parties that are looking to distribute personalized
services on other portals versus their own websites.


A number of participating websites and vendors interested in Backplane
Protocol and the advancement of the specifications are listed
here.<http://backplanex.com/showcase/>

*VII. Language of business*

English.

*VIII. Method of work*

Mailing list discussion.  Posting of intermediate drafts at
http://backplanex.com or the OpenID Wiki.  Virtual conferencing on an
ad-hoc basis.

*IX. Basis for completion of the activity*

When all items set forth in Section IV Scope have been addressed and agreed
upon by members of the working group.

*X. Initial Membership*

Johnny Bufu, Janrain
Greg Keegstra, Janrain
Vidya Shivkumar, Janrain
Tom Raney, Janrain
Vlad Skvortsov, Echo

Yuri Lukyanov, Echo

Alexander Zhuravlev, Echo
Chris Saad, Echo

*XI. Expected contribution*

Draft: Backplane Exchange Specification 2.0 (draft 13)
<https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=forums&srcid=MTQ2NzA4MzgwMDk0MDY4NDM0MDABMTM2MTI2MTk1ODQ1OTQ4NDI5MTcBNEZCNDAxNUYuODAyMDUwNUBqYW5yYWluLmNvbQEyAQ&authuser=0>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openid.net/pipermail/openid-specs/attachments/20120605/69fc08e2/attachment.html>


More information about the specs mailing list