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Call for Participation: Biometrics TC

A new OASIS technical committee is being formed. The OASIS Biometrics Technical Committee has been proposed by the members of OASIS listed in the charter below. The TC name, statement of purpose, scope, list of deliverables, audience, IPR mode and language specified in the proposal will constitute the TC’s official charter. Submissions of technology for consideration by the TC, and the beginning of technical discussions, may occur no sooner than the TC’s first meeting.

Please note that the TC Charter received comments during its call for comment period. Comments and their disposition by the co-proposers can be found at https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/oasis-charter-discuss/201212/msg00004.html.

The eligibility requirements for becoming a participant in the TC at the first meeting are:

(a) you must be an employee or designee of an OASIS member organization or an individual member of OASIS, and


(b) you must join the Technical Committee, which members may do by using the Roster “join group” link on the TC’s web page at [a].

To be considered a voting member at the first meeting:

(a) you must join the Technical Committee at least 7 days prior to the first meeting (on or before 05 February 2013); and


(b) you must attend the first meeting of the TC, at the time and date fixed below (12 February 2013).

Participants also may join the TC at a later time. OASIS and the TC welcomes all interested parties.

Non-OASIS members who wish to participate may contact us about joining OASIS [b]. In addition, the public may access the information resources maintained for each TC: a mail list archive, document repository and public comments facility, which will be linked from the TC’s public home page [c].

Please feel free to forward this announcement to any other appropriate lists. OASIS is an open standards organization; we encourage your participation.
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[a] https://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/biometrics/index.php

[b] See http://www.oasis-open.org/join/


[c] http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/biometrics/

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

The charter for this TC is as follows.

1) TC Charter

(1)(a) Name of the TC

OASIS Biometrics Technical Committee

(1)(b) Statement of Purpose

Despite existing efforts, opportunities remain for improving interoperability among biometric-related systems or system components.

The purpose of the OASIS Biometrics Technical Committee is to define, enhance, and maintain open standards that facilitate the use of biometrics and biometric operations over a service-oriented architecture, such as web services. Improving interoperability is a key enabler for making biometrics more viable within multi-factor authentication. The Technical Committee will help bring parity to biometrics as compared to other technologies, such as cryptographic certificate use and management, where web services standards are markedly more mature.

Because improving interoperability through open standards is a primary objective, the Technical Committee is dedicated to the concept that conformance to standards will imply a well-documented level of interoperability. Additionally, standards development in the Technical Committee should both minimize and segregate components where requiring unique knowledge hinders interoperability.

(1)(c) Scope of Work

The Technical Committee will provide a general, yet targeted forum for developing a suite of open standards that will foster and accelerate the use of biometrics and biometric services in a distributed environment.

(1)(d) List of Deliverables

* OASIS Specification for WS-Biometric Devices (WS-BD) based on contribution from NIST (estimated 12–18 months from submission) [1]

* Maintenance of the OASIS BIAS SOAP Profile [3] and related work products as required (immediately from first meeting)

* Other standards, guidelines, recommendations, and deliverables as initiated and approved by the Committee (dates of deliverable according to their introduction and coordination within the TC). Excluded is work currently being done in standards development venues (listed in (9)) unless in coordination with the appropriate SDO (e.g., INCITS M1 BIAS and OASIS BIAS SOAP profile projects).

(1)(e) IPR Mode

The Technical Committee will operate under the “RF on Limited Terms” mode of the OASIS IPR Policy [https://www.oasis-open.org/policies-guidelines/ipr#s10.2.3].

(1)(f) Anticipated Audience or Users

The primary audience of the work produced by the Technical Committee will be the biometrics community, the authentication community, and the identity management community.

(1)(g) Language

English shall be the language used to conduct business within the Technical Committee. The Technical Committee may elect to form subcommittees to produce localized documentation of the Committee’s work in additional languages.

(2) Non-Normative Information Regarding TC

(2)(a) Similar or Applicable Work

OASIS has other committees that are related to Biometrics but the committees are run in a very narrow scope: for example, BIAS. This narrow scope may constrain some of the creativity within a TC. It is planned that other biometrics-related work done by other TCs will be moved into this new TC to provide a central location. Other committees from within OASIS can then have a single source of biometrics standards work being performed. Committees focusing on, but not limited to, authentication, e-authentication, and privacy and identity may be able to leverage this work within their own projects. Within the US, INCITS M1 working groups focus on biometrics activities but not related to web services; this is the same within ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 37. The new committee plans to coordinate and maintain liaison relationships with both committees as well as other committees as discovered.

Activity supporting biometric standardization [5] is underway in many venues worldwide, in de jure bodies (international, national, regional) and in de facto SSOs/SDOs, industry trade groups, inter-agency projects, etc [6]. The OASIS Biometrics TC will seek to align its technical activities and deliverables with these other standardization initiatives in order to support harmonized vocabularies, avoid pointless duplication of effort, and promote interoperability of biometric data exchange and machine processing.

Further, the OASIS Biometrics TC will seek to establish working relationships with other standardization projects in the form of TC Liaisons as may be appropriate for any of its specification development activities.

(2)(b) Date, Time, and Location of First Meeting
The first meeting of the Biometrics will be held by teleconference on February 12, 2013 at 11:00 AM EST. NIST will sponsor the meeting.

(2)(c) Ongoing Meeting Plans and Sponsors

The TC expects to meet monthly by conference call. Sponsorship is to be determined at the first meeting.

(2)(d) Proposers of the TC

1. Kevin Mangold, kevin.mangold@nist.gov, US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

2. Ross Micheals, ross.micheals@nist.gov, US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

3. Brad Wing, bradford.wing@nist.gov, US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

4. Cathy Tilton, cathy.tilton@daon.com, Daon

5. Ryan Triplett, Triplett_Ryan@bah.com, Booz Allen Hamilton

6. Raul Sanchez-Reillo, raul.sanchezreillo@gmail.com, Carlos III University of Madrid

7. Anne Wang, anngwang@cogentsystems.com, 3M Cogent

8. Bob Gupta, bobg@viometric.com, Viometric

9. Anil John, anil.john@gsa.gov, US General Services Administration (GSA)

10. Jeffrey Shultz, jeffrey.k.shultz.ctr@mail.mil, US Department of Defense – Defense Forensices and Biometrics Agengy (DFBA)

(2)(e) Statements of Support

“I, Mary Brady, mary.brady@nist.gov, NIST’s primary representative to OASIS, approve the Biometrics TC charter and endorse all NIST proposers listed in (2)(d).”

“I, Cathy Tilton, cathy.tilton@daon.com, Daon’s primary representative to OASIS, approve the Biometrics TC charter and endorse all Daon proposers listed in (2)(d).”

“I, William Barnhill, barnhill_william@bah.com, Booz Allen Hamilton’s primary representative to OASIS, approve the Biometrics TC charter and endorse all BAH proposers listed in (2)(d).”

“I, Raul Sanchez-Reillo, raul.sanchezreillo@gmail.com, Carlos III University of Madrid’s primary representative to OASIS, approve the Biometrics TC charter and endorse all Carlos III University of Madrid proposers listed in (2)(d).”

“I, Colin Hopkinson, cghopkinson@mmm.com, of 3M, approve the Biometrics TC charter and endorse all 3M Cogent proposers listed in (2)(d).”

“I, Bob Gupta (bobg@viometric.com), Viometrics’s primary representative to OASIS, approve the Biometrics TC charter and endorse all Viometrics proposers listed in (2)(d).”

“I, Anil John, anil.john@gsa.gov, GSA’s primary representative to OASIS, approve the Biometrics TC charter and endorse all GSA proposers listed in (2)(d).”

“I, Gerald Smith, gerald.l.smith180.civ@mail.mil, as Primary Voting Representative for DoD to OASIS, approve the Biometrics TC charter and endorse all DoD proposers listed in (2)(d).”

(2)(f) TC Convener

Kevin Mangold, kevin.mangold@nist.gov, US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will be the convener.

(2)(g) Member Section Affiliation

(2)(h) Initial Contributions

NIST will contribute its “Specification for WS-Biometric Devices (WS-BD)” [1] as a starting point for one of the key TC deliverables.

(2)(i) FAQ Document

(2)(j) Work Product Titles

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References
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[1] Specification for WS-Biometric Devices (WS-BD)
NIST Special Publication 500-288, Version 1, March 2012
http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/upload/NIST-SP-500-288-v1.pdf

Summary: “WS-Biometric Devices is a protocol which focuses on
the single process shared by all biometric systems: acquisition
(“capturing a biometric sample with the intention of creating
either a biometric reference or biometric probe”). The
specification provides a framework for deploying and invoking
core synchronous operations via lightweight web service
protocols for the command and control of biometric sensors.
The design of this specification is influenced heavily by the
REST architecture; deviations and tradeoffs were made to
accommodate the inherent mismatches between the REST design
goals and the limitations of devices that are (typically)
oriented for a single-user.”

[2] NIST Biometric Web Services
Including Reference Implementation for Biometric Identity Assurance Services
http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/bws.cfm

[3] Biometric Identity Assurance Services (BIAS) SOAP Profile Version 1.0
OASIS Standard, 24 May 2012
http://docs.oasis-open.org/bias/soap-profile/v1.0/os/biasprofile-v1.0-os.html

Summary: This profile specifies how to use the Extensible Markup
Language (XML) defined in ANSI INCITS 442-2010 — Biometric
Identity Assurance Services to invoke Simple Object Access
Protocol (SOAP)-based services that implement BIAS operations.
These SOAP-based services enable an application to invoke
biometric identity assurance operations remotely in a Services
Oriented Architecture (SOA) infrastructure. This OASIS BIAS
profile specifies the design concepts and architecture, data
model and data dictionary, message structure and rules, and
error handling necessary to invoke SOAP-based services that
implement BIAS operations. Together, the BIAS standard and
the BIAS profile provide an open framework for deploying and
remotely invoking biometric-based identity assurance capabilities
that can be readily accessed across an SOA infrastructure.”

[4] Biometrics in a Networked World (Kevin Mangold)
http://www.planetbiometrics.com/article-details/i/1271/

[5] ** Biometric Standards: General References **

[6] Getting Started: Biometric Standards (Catherine J. Tilton)
http://www.planetbiometrics.com/article-details/i/499/

[7] Biometric Standards: Interview with Christoph Busch
http://www.planetbiometrics.com/article-details/i/1172/

[8] Advance of Biometric Standards: Fernando Podio
http://www.planetbiometrics.com/article-details/i/1130/

[9] ** Biometric Standardization Venues **

[10] ISO/IEC JTC1 SC 37 (Biometrics)
http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_tc_browse.htm?commid=313770
http://www.christoph-busch.de/standards-sc37wg3.html

[11] ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 (Cards and Personal Identification)
http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_tc_browse.htm?commid=45144

[12] ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 (IT Security Techniques)
http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_tc_browse.htm?commid=45306

[13] ISO TC 68/SC 2 (Financial Services, Security)
http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_tc_browse.htm?commid=49670

[14] INCITS/M1, Biometrics Technical Committee
http://standards.incits.org/a/public/group/m1

[15] ITU-T Study Group 17 (SG17)
http://www.itu.int/net/ITU-T/info/sg17.aspx

[16] BioAPI Consortium
http://www.bioapi.org/

[17] International Biometric Industry Association (IBIA)
http://ibia.org/

[18] NIST Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) for Biometrics
http://www.nist.gov/biometrics-portal.cfm

[19] US Defense Forensics and Biometrics Agency (DFBA)
http://www.biometrics.dod.mil/

[20] US National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Biometrics Domain
https://www.niem.gov/communities/biometrics/Pages/about-bm.aspx

[21] UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
[Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTDs), Biometrics and Border Security]
http://www.icao.int/Meetings/mrtd-Zimbabwe2012/Pages/default.aspx

[22] Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) Aadhaar Project
http://uidai.gov.in/aadhaar.html

[23] VoiceXML Forum [Voice Biometrics]
http://www.voicexml.org/