Kantara Friends & Colleagues

 

A brief note to let you know that as of September 1st I have stepped down from the Kantara BoT and thus also as Kantara President.  This comes as a direct result of my leaving CA Technologies effective on this same date.  Effective also on the same date I will be replaced on the BoT by my longtime security colleague and friend at CA, Michelle Waugh.   You will see and hear more from her in the very near future, including her hosting the next Kantara F2F meeting at the CA offices in Redwood City, CA on October 20th & 21st.  Also in the near future I expect that the BoT will elect a new President and Vice President to work with Lucy, Joni, Dervla, Anna and the LC as a key part of the leadership of Kantara.  But more on that as the BoT comes back from their Summer vacations.

 

Since its founding about two years ago Kantara has done a lot to help transform the foundations of identity and trust on the Internet.  But in reality we are in the very early stages of this transformation.  I think we would all agree that at times the  transformation does appear to be taking more time than we would prefer.  In part I think this is due to the sheer size, complexity, diversity, and global nature of the Internet.  But I think it is clear that better handling of identity on the Internet is needed more now than ever. 

 

For Kantara to fulfill its role as the organization that will help “ensure secure, identity-based, online transactions while preventing misuse of personal information…”, much more needs to be done.  The next 18 months will be pivotal for Kantara and for its mission, with projects like NSTIC and similar government projects around the world, cloud-based identity services, and other commercially oriented identity federations, all moving forward.  The continued advancement of the Kantara ARB, IRB, and the various WG/DGs should prove pivotal to this evolution, but it is imperative that we all (and others) stay engaged in working with and funding Kantara.

 

One personal action I plan to execute in the near future is joining Kantara as an individual member.  You will thus be seeing me around and hearing my voice on some calls going forward, like it or not!

 

If you need to contact me you can reach me via Linkedin as well as at my personal email address jmatthew.gardiner@gmail.com.

 

With Great Respect and Warmest Regards,

Matthew Gardiner