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New ideas for innovation in the field of mobility and middleware were discussed when TF-MNM, the TERENA Task Force on Mobility and Network Middleware, and TF-EMC2, the Task Force on European Middleware Coordination and Collaboration, met in Málaga, Spain, between 15-17 October. This is the first meeting since the re-chartering of these task forces earlier this year. These two complementary task forces were set up to discuss mobility and middleware activities, and have been responsible for the initiation of many successful ideas such as eduroam, REFEDS, and SCHAC.
Following a popular format previously introduced to the task forces, the two meetings were separated by a day of open space discussion with participants pitching their own ideas for discussion and development.
TF-MNM meeting
The eduroam service, pioneered in 2002 by TF-Mobility, has become an international success with deployments in 66 countries worldwide. With such success comes new challenges, and participants discussed the need for more opportunities to address common global eduroam operational issues as well as better solutions for readily implementing eduroam in commercial spaces such as hotels. Solutions proposed included a lightweight eduroam-ready access point, which would allow ‘plug-and-play’ eduroam for small meeting spaces, and an eduroam ready certification model.
TF-MNM is increasingly focusing on non-wifi issues, as reflected by discussions at the meeting on the usability and performance of 4G networks and the need for more effective mobile data-roaming practices for the research and education community, in line with the European Commission campaign on roaming charges.
TF-EMC2 meeting
TF-EMC2 has always been an incubator for ideas and the new charter provides a framework for supporting innovation through a lifecycle to a solution. Group Management was highlighted as a "technology need" at the recent GÉANT Symposium in Vienna, Austria. As a follow-up in Málaga, the task force facilitated members of the Grouper Development and Joint Research Activity on Attributes and Groups to interact, improving the support options for these projects.
As a result of the open space discussion, TF-EMC2 picked key topics of interest that were raised as action items for future follow-up until the next meeting. The Step-up-as-a-Service presentation and the 2-factor open space discussion garnered interest from a wide audience and a task to make this service available to the wider community, investigating how to best support research infrastructure and campus identity vetting requirements, has begun.
Further information
TF-MNM meeting agenda, presentations and minutes.
TF-ECM2 meeting agenda, presentations and minutes.
More information about the task forces can be found on the TF-MNM webpages and the TF-EMC2 activity pages.