2008-7-25 Conference Call about CAS Vision and Roadmap

This is an open conference call. Notice has been sent to the JASIG CAS mailing lists. If you wish to join in on this conference call, please contact Benn Oshrin for the information.

Please be familiar with the CAS Vision and Roadmap as well as the Governance Model for the call.

Attendees

ScottS
Benn Oshrin
Robert Lewis
Eric Pierce
Andrew Feller
Andrew Petro
Andy Newman
Matt Smith
Hugh Eaves
Jonathan Markow

Agenda

Introductions (Benn)
JA-SIG October Unconference (Scott)
1. Roadmap
2. Use of Developer Days?
Governance (Scott)
1. Comments on Governance Model?
Direction & Requirements (Scott)
1. Next Steps for the CAS 3.x branch

1. CAS 4
  1. Why CAS 4?
  2. What are we looking to accomplish?
  3. What's the theme? Federation? Integration?
  4. CAS Vision and Roadmap
Project Resources (Benn)
1. "Sustainable" development
  1. Implementers
  2. Sponsors?
  3. Grants?
2. Support
  1. Mailing lists
  2. Documentation
Closing (Benn)
1. Next Steps

Notes

UnConference
- Use UnConference for finalizing stuff from this meeting and meeting of steering committee
- Please put your name on the tentative list for the Unconference!
- Use developer days to possibly do some architecture and get all new developers on the same page, update developer guidelines
Governance Model
- Everyone should look at the Governance Model and provide feedback!
- Governance Model should conform to the JASIG Bylaws (we think it does)
- Float Governance Model by the Board
- Come up with timeline for approving the governance model - request for comment;
- Set hard deadline for approving governance model. Should give enough time to get vote in before Unconference and allow steering committee members to schedule travel if they want to come
Direction and Requirements
- CAS2 vs. CAS3 vs. CAS4 --> why did we go from CAS2 to CAS3? What's the compelling reason for a CAS4?
- Federation appears to be the most transformative
- Two areas to look at for transformation: from Use Case side, i.e. Federation, etc. from Administrative Side: configuration wizards, administrative tools, peek into the system, etc.
- CAS1 to CAS2 was a revolution of protocol; CAS2 to CAS3 was a revolution of architecture; CAS3 to CAS4 looks like a revolution of scope/ideas/protocol which will lead to an evolution of the architecture ("Architecture changes in support of protocol changes")
- Items on Roadmap that could happen in 3 vs. 4. Need to decide where we should allocate resources.
- Touch base with Internet2 Shibboleth about roadmap comparison
- Is CAS4 re-inventing Shibboleth? Probably not. Looking at Federation, but not necessarily Federation via SAML2 (or only via SAML2).
- Not looking to re-invent the "clubs", i.e. InCommon
- Could look at creating a lightweight federation protocol to become a defacto standard (like CAS protocol) but would prefer not to
- How do we facilitate migration from CAS3 to CAS4? It is OK that people can run (eg) CAS2 indefinitely, but we do not want to make it hard for people to migrate should they decide to do so
Project Resources
- Let's be "green"!
- Fostering a developer community. Structuring CAS project such that we can sandbox new or junior developers so that we can let them help but not have to monitor them. We should lower the bar for developers (and others) to participate.
- Create a project manager/mentor to help bring new developers up to speed without overburdening technical lead
- Looking not just for developers but documentors, UI experts, Business Analysts, etc.
- The goal is to distribute knowledge of the overall architecture and implementation across multiple people out multiple institutions
- Discussion of the uPortal model
  - Development largely comes from people at their institutions trying to fill local needs
  - Grants have been used in the past, largely for start up activities
- Aren't aware of any grants that we could apply for. Can we position ourselves for grants with some proper "PR"?
- (this was an add-on: can we leverage our integration with other projects to gain grants/sponsorship?)
- We need to pay attention to resource requirements while building the roadmap, making it clear what we're looking for in terms of volunteer support

Action Items

All: Sign up for the Unconference.
All: Review CAS Vision and Roadmap as well as the proposed Governance Model.
All: Add yourself to cas-dev if you're not already on it.
Scott: Send out tentative timeline for review and implementation of the proposed Governance Model.
Rutgers: Follow up with Scott Cantor, especially for the October JA-SIG and I2 conferences.
Benn: Schedule next call. CAS4 roadmap could be a big chunk of the agenda.

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