Unified Messaging Charter

Name
Unified Messaging Group

Purpose
To create common marketing and positioning messages with widespread community consensus to consumers and enterprises. Scope includes the state of identity technology, products, policies, and recommendations regarding the heterogeneous decentralized ecosystem of interrelated identity and security products and initiatives.

Principles
This working group will operate by the Identity Commons principles along with the general principles derived to be consistent with:
 * the Seven Laws of Identity
 * the Principles of Identity published by the the international organization OECD.
 * the Magna Charta
 * the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Bill of Rights
 * European Identity and Privacy Laws

Any individual expert is likely to be wrong. The average of the experts' predictions often outperforms the individuals from whom the average is derived. See: "The Wisdom of Crowds" (James Surowiecki)."If you have impressive academic credentials and/or an impressive amount of experience, you should be alert to the possibility that you could still be profoundly wrong."

Practices
The following practices are to be followed by this working group:
 * Use the wisdom of the crowd to derive common messages
 * Emulate Abraham Lincoln as described in "Team of Rivals" (by Doris Kearns Goodwin). Lincoln insisted on vigorous debate and discussion, and an ability to tolerate dissent.


 * Create and fund working groups to address specific issues requiring industry-wide participation and disband them when they complete their mission.


 * Create a robust website that will provide:
 * report news and developments
 * a schedule of upcoming events that support, promote information cards
 * policy and code to solve specific problems- information card downloadable plug-ins
 * lists of companies that support information card on their sites
 * lists of identity providers supporting information cards
 * organize meetings
 * provide info on:
 * how to use information cards
 * how to get your own
 * how to be an identity provider
 * how to become a relying party using information cards


 * Wikis will be used for documents shared among members and committees


 * Support and hold unconferences and conferences


 * Meetings will be held both:
 * face to face
 * telcon


 * blogs, im, twitters, rss feeds will be used and linked
 * code development will be encouraged by providing samples, and holding contests to solve specific coding problems.
 * There will be an IP Policy governing discussions under the following:
 * code shared shall be considered open source to be distributed under EPL or Apache license terms unless otherwise specifically documented and controlled via NDAs signed in advance.

Requirements of Participation and How to Join
This working group will be organized as a 501c(6) non-profit corporation. Membership will be determined by the bylaws of the corporation, http://informationcard.org/bylaws Membership will be open to any individual or organization supporting informationcards and who pays their annual dues.

Membership in this working group is open to any individual or organization interested in the advancement of information cards. Organizations will be charged a fee relative to its size. Individuals will be able to register at the website. http://www.informationcard.net/join, or send email to membership@informationcard.net

Licenses and/or Restrictions on Usage of Work Product
While it is the intent of this organization to leverage and recommend existing open specfications, when a new specification is created, it will follow the ICF's IPR Policy for specifications. All information card specifications are open, public, royalty-free specifications with no restrictions on usage. While it is not the primary intent of the organization to create source code, any code created by the organization will be made available under an open license such as the Apache License 2.0.

Other software that is interoperable with information card components and solutions may be certified by the Information Card Foundation.

Current Deliverables and Milestones
All major deliverables and milestones that affect the identity commons community will be posted on the website http://www.informationcard.net

Current Meeting Schedule
Future meetings will be posted on the website as well as archives of past meeting minutes.

http://www.informationcardfoundation.org/meetings

Current Stewards Council Representative and Alternate
Reps and alternates will be selected by the I-Card Foundation board of directors.


 * Representative: Charles Andres
 * Alternate: Mary Ruddy

Current Links

 * http://www.informationcardfoundation.org - Information Card Foundation

Related Groups

 * http://projectliberty.org - Liberty Alliance
 * http://www.higgins-project.org/cms - The Higgins Project
 * http://code.google.com/p/openinfocard - Open InfoCard Project
 * XDI
 * Berkman Center for the Internet and Society at Harvard Law School
 * OSIS
 * Project VRM
 * Social Physics

History
The Information Card Foundation was founded in 2008 and launched at the Burton Group's Catalyst Conference in June 2008.


 * 2008 Q2 Report I-Card Foundation