Open Identity Exchange UK Europe

The Open Identity Exchange (OIX) is a non-profit, technology agnostic, collaborative cross sector membership organisation. OIX works with public and private sector organisations to accelerate the adoption of digital identity services based on open standards. OIX is working on creating a bridge between the private sector and the government to develop a core framework of high level rules that inform sector specific rules and drive interoperable standards. The Open Identity Exchange UK Europe Chapter was approved by the OIX Board of Directors in 2016 and the Chapter continues to organise its objectives and structure to best serve OIX members in this region. The OIX has worked on a number of projects which attempt to address the key challenges of creating convenient, secure and privacy-enhancing digital transactions. These projects have included The States of Jersey eGovernment Programme, GOV.UK Verify and LIGHTest. Additionally the OIX work on a number of whitepapers which focus on issues and opportunities in emerging identity markets.
History
At the beginning of 2015 the Cabinet Office requested Open Identity Exchange begin a process of exploring the legal, business and pragmatic considerations of creating a self-sustaining UK ‘chapter’ of the Open Identity Exchange. OIX has received a series of grants from the UK Cabinet Office that have been used for the collaboratively funded projects.
An ad-hoc board of advisers was formed of independent, experienced, public and private sector leaders participants to address policy considerations during this transition process.
The Open Identity Exchange Board of Directors approved an OIX Chapters Policy at the end of 2015, allowing the formation of individual Chapters affiliated with OIX for the purpose of furthering the goals and objects of OIX in various local markets. In April 2016 OIX UK Europe Chapter appointed its board of Directors.
Overview of Open Identity Exchange
The Open Identity Exchange (OIX) is a non-profit, technology agnostic, collaborative cross sector membership organization with the purpose of accelerating the adoption of digital identity services based on open standards. Through OIX, members can expand existing identity services and serve adjacent markets. OIX members work on joint research and engage in pilot projects to test real world use cases. The results of these efforts are published via white papers and shared publicly via workshops.
OIX members work together to jointly fund and participate in pilot projects (sometimes referred to as alpha projects). These pilots test business, legal, and/or technical concepts or theory and their interoperability in real world use cases.
OIX operates the OIXnet trust registry, a global, authoritative registry of business, legal and technical requirements needed to ensure market adoption and global interoperability.
Long term strategy
OIX UK Europe is building on the idea of consumers having just one identity account, allowing for accelerated and frictionless activity online. OIX will help this develop through a core framework of high level rules that inform sector specific rules and drive interoperable standards. OIX wishes to help bridge the gap between the private sector and the government to help air any issues and problems, with OIX perceived as the ‘curator'. By collaborating on registration of schemes, certifications and frameworks using OIXnet, it will only help to drive up scale.
Pilot Projects
OIX members work together to jointly fund and participate in pilot projects (sometimes referred to as alpha projects). Projects are defined as small scale, low risk assessments, analysis or tests of interoperable components that address the key challenges of creating convenient, secure, and privacy-enhancing digital transactions. These projects target specific issues that have been identified by an organisation. All projects result in a whitepaper that is published on the OIX website.
Some examples of OIX Projects are:
States of Jersey
The States of Jersey (SoJ) eGovernment programme is to be a major business-led transformation programme to implement the eGovernment Model vision that will be led by technology.
The eGovernment model sets out 4 key themes:
* Customer personalisation
* Operational effectiveness
* Trusted identification
* Enabling infrastructure
A fundamental component to support the model is some form of Digital ID for citizens and organisations. SoJ wish to leverage the knowledge gained during the development of the UK Government identity assurance programme to hasten adaptation and adoption for Jersey.
The hypothesis was that the UK Government identity assurance model could be adapted for Jersey with the support of certified UK IdPs and potential identity assurance hub providers, to meet the requirements of SoJ. The hypothesis also considered that this would create an attractive market opportunity in Jersey for one or more of these providers.
LIGHTest project
This is a 3-year project that started in September 2016 and is partially funded from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under G.A, No. 700321. The LIGHTest consortium consists of 14 partners from 9 European countries and co-ordinated by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. The project looks to reach out beyond Europe, to build a global community.
LIGHTest (Lightweight Infrastructure for Global Heterogeneous Trust management in support of an open Ecosystem of Stakeholders and Trust schemes)
The objective of LIGHTest is to create a global cross-domain trust infrastructure that renders it transparent and easy for verifiers to evaluate electronic transactions. By querying different trust authorities worldwide and combining trust aspects related to identity, business, reputation etc. it will become possible to conduct domain-specific trust decisions. This is achieved by reusing existing governance, organization, infrastructure, standards, software, community, and know-how of the existing Domain Name System, combined with new innovative building blocks. This approach allows an efficient global rollout of a solution that assists decision makers in their trust decisions. By integrating mobile identities into the scheme, LIGHTest also enables domain-specific assessments on Levels of Assurance for these identities.
This project will contain at least 2 pilots.
GOV.UK Verify
The UK Government, Cabinet Office joined the OIX at board level, as it began the work on its Identity Assurance Programme (IDAP). Through the OIX Directed Funding programme, a considerable number of projects continue to be carried out under OIX governance, the results of which have helped with the ongoing development of GOV.UK Verify. Work continues as GDS looks at how digital identities can be used in both the public and private sector.
GOV.UK Verify uses certified companies to verify your identity to government. A certified company is a private company that works to high industry and government standards when they verify your identity.
Citizens can currently choose from the following certified companies, giving them choice and control over how their information is used:
* Barclays
* CitizenSafe
* Digidentity
* Experian
* Post Office
* Royal Mail
* SecureIdentity
* Verizon
Once the citizen has verified their identity with their chosen certified company, they can use their account across a growing range of government services without having to start again each time.
GOV.UK Verify is built and maintained by the Government Digital Service (GDS), part of the Cabinet Office. The UK Government is committed to expanding GOV.UK Verify and helping to grow a market for identity assurance that will be able to meet user needs in relation to central government services, as well as for local, health and private sector services.
OIX UK worked with the British Government’s Cabinet Office on developing the GOV.UK Verify Programme.
Members
OIXUK member programme encourages organisations of all sizes to participate, collaborate, and contribute to the success of the OIXUK shared mission.
Executive Members
Barclays
Cabinet Office
CA Technologies
Equifax
Experian
Google
International Airlines Group
LexisNexis
Microsoft
Ping Identity
Symantec
Timpson
Verizon
UK Board of Directors
* Don Thibeau
* Nick Mothershaw
*Paresh Majithia
* David Rennie
* Emma Lindley
* Andy Bates (Verizon)
*Dave Webber (LexisNexis)
* Graham Hill (Microsoft)
* Sarah Munro (Barclays)
Whitepapers
OIX White Papers focus on issues and opportunities in emerging identity markets. OIX white papers are driven by the needs of the members and are intended to help develop the identity ecosystem.
Recent whitepapers include:
* Use of online activity as part of the identity verification
* UK private sector needs for identity assurance
* Use of digital identity in peer-to-peer economy
* Shared signals proof of concept
* Creating a digital identity in Jersey
* Just Giving and GOV.UK Verify
* Creating a pensions dashboard
* Could digital identities help transform consumers attitudes and behavior towards savings?
* Digital identity across borders: opening a bank account in another EU country

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