When a new identity federation applies to join eduGAIN, the eduGAIN Secretariat and business development team will work closely with them to help them prepare and meet all the membership requirements. The following steps will be taken and will be used as a template to manage Candidate applications. Each "step" may run concurrently, depending the on the readiness of the federation.
| Candidate Name | Federation X |
|---|---|
| OTRS Ticket Number |
eduGAIN Candidate Process
| Steps | Requirements | Actions | Owner | Timeframe | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1: Initial application meeting / readiness discussion | This initial meeting will talk the candidate through the joining process, get an understanding of the technical infrastructure of the federation and it's maturity and also share information about useful resources for the federation such as the eduGAIN website and wiki and the REFEDS resources. If not already familiar, federations will also be talked through the available document templates and the various eduGAIN tools that can be used for testing compliance and reviewing issues. |
| BD Sec | Set up meeting within 2 weeks of receiving request | ticket |
| Step 2: Collect required information for membership application | There are a number of formalities that need to be addressed before a federation can become a membership candidate. These are known as the "joining checklist" and represent the core information that is held about each federation to enable metadata consumption and to start the trust building process. |
| Sec / OT | TBD - depending on maturity of federation | |
Step 3: eduGAIN Secretariat review of federation documentation | The eduGAIN Secretariat will undertake an initial review of the federation Policy and MRPS documents and may invite others to help support this process. The aim of this step is to help the federation identify any potential issues that might come up from the community review process and ensure step 5 goes as smoothly as possible. |
| Sec | 4 - 6 weeks | |
| Step 4: Technical review | The purpose of the technical review is to iron out any issues the federation may have with publishing and consuming eduGAIN metadata on a daily basis to ensure that the federation can run successfully with no / low error rate when membership is approved. |
| Sec / OT | Concurrent with Step 5 & 6 | |
| Step 5: membership review of federation documentation | As stated in the eduGAIN Constitution, the eduGAIN Steering Group (eSG) is responsible for: "Reviewing and approving the membership of new Federations". Step 5 and Step 6 support this requirement. |
| Sec | 4 weeks (or 2-3 weeks for assessment + 1-2 weeks for the applicant to process the feedback?) | |
| Step 6: voting | Formalised vote for membership acceptance |
| Sec | 2 weeks | |
| Step 7: formal registration | This final step ensures that the candidate is able to fully utilise the eduGAIN service after the community vote is successful. |
| Sec |
eduGAIN New Candidate Assessment Feedback
Assessment Period: DATES
| # | Document (Policy / MRPS) | Document line / reference | Proposed Change or Query | Proposer / Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Policy / MRPS | general | For the outsider it is not clear what the name of the Identity Federation is. This should be made clear on the front page of the both documents. | Casper Dreef / eduGAIN secretariat | The candidate updated multiple sections to clarify this matter. |
| #2 | Policy | Introduction | Linked to the aforementioned and referring to the following text: "For EthERNet, the participation in the EFIS is a service among other services provided to Education and Research community" we would suggest to please clarify and simplify it, in something in the lines of "EFIS - as an indentity federation - is a service provided by EthERNet". We suggest to make a clear distinction between the Federation Operator (EFIS) and the NREN (EthERNet) throughout the document. | Casper Dreef / eduGAIN secretariat | The introduction was updated |
| #3 | Policy | Section 3.6 | change "Service Description" to "the Federation Policy" | Casper Dreef / eduGAIN secretariat | Candidate updated the text |
| #4 | MRPS | Section 2 | Paragraph 2 - typo. "updates" | Casper Dreef / eduGAIN secretariat | typo fixed, but it would be better readable if it was made a separate sentence. |
| #5 | Policy | Section 3.1 | Typo in title "Governancef" | Casper Dreef / eduGAIN secretariat | fixed |
| #6 | Policy | Section 4.1 | "Further participants are Members of Ethiopian Education and Research Network or members that have joined in a second moment, prior approval by the General Assembly and Federation Members that join prior approval by the Directive Board." Unclear what potential members are required to do and if they are eligible. The process is well described on https://efis.ethernet.edu.et/join.html. | Casper Dreef / eduGAIN secretariat | Eligibility criteria were updated |
| #7 | MRPS | Section 3 | https://efis.ethernet.edu.et/idp-how-to-join/ links to a sharepoint excel workbook. Please use the correct link. | Casper Dreef / eduGAIN secretariat | Link is now correct and working |
| #8 | MRPS | Section 4 | https://efis.ethernet.edu.et/docs/ leads to 403 error page | Casper Dreef / eduGAIN secretariat | idem |
| #9 | MRPS | Section 5.1 | See #8 | Casper Dreef / eduGAIN secretariat | idem |