Recommendations for Establishing an Identity Ecosystem Governance Structure for the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace

The National Institute of Standards and Technology released a paper entitled Recommendations for Establishing an Identity Ecosystem Governance Structure which supports the implementation of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace and responds to comments received in response to the related Notice of Inquiry published in the Federal Register on June 14, 2011.

Recommendations include:

• Steering Group Initiation. The Identity Ecosystem Steering Group should be established as a new organization which should be led by the private sector in conjunction with, but independent of the Federal Government.
• Steering Group Structure. The government recommends a Steering Group structure with two bodies, a Plenary and a Management Council, with mutually supporting roles and dispersed decision making responsibilities.
• Stakeholder Representation. Providing balanced representation, securing individual privacy, advocating for underrepresented participants, and preventing the exercise of undue influence are all essential aspects of providing effective stakeholder representation to participants in the Identity Ecosystem.
• International Coordination. Given the global nature of online commerce, the Identity Ecosystem cannot be isolated from internationally available online services and their identity solutions. As such, the Identity Ecosystem Steering Group should coordinate with representatives from ongoing and planned international identity efforts, standards development organizations, trade organizations, and the international departments of member entities in order to leverage lessons learned and broadly recognized technical standards.