Current News

16-May-2013 Expressions of Interest are sought for the position of Senior Developer with the AAF to work on building infrastructure, systems and processes to support the future growth of the AAF. This is an excellent opportunity to grow your professional skill set while working in a diverse development role. The position is fixed-term for 18 months. For detailed information about the position, go to: www.aaf.edu.au/home/jobs/. Applications close: 4pm AEST on Thursday 23 May 2013.

06-May-2013 The AAF is proud to announce the beta release of AASC (AAF Automated Software Configurator).

This tool will automatically build and configure a Shibboleth/Apache service provider based on a few simple questions at the command line. AASC reduces the time it takes to install and configure your service provider from hours to minutes. To try out the software, please point your web browser at: https://github.com/ausaccessfed/aasc

NOTE: This is beta software. If you encounter any issues when using the software, or you have feature requests, please contact support at support@aaf.edu.au. Our development team will respond to all requests, but be aware that priority will be given to support, bug fixes and enhancement to production software.

01-May-2013 The AAF Virtual Home (VH) – the new solution replacing the Virtual Home Organisation (VHO) – has been released in our production environment. The VH will allow:

30-April-2013 The AAF is pleased to announce the availability of Federation Registry 2.2. We recommend all FR users upgrade as soon as practical. Thanks to staff from the University of Illinois for their assistance in preparing this release.

Full details of the release are available from: https://github.com/ausaccessfed/federationregistry/blob/master/documentation/releases/2.2.md and the source is available from the usual place https://github.com/ausaccessfed/federationregistry.

09-April-2013 The AAF Annual General Meeting will be held in conjunction with the CAUDIT Autumn Meeting on Thursday 11 April 2013 in Hobart, Tasmania. AAF Members only.

09-April-2013 The AAF has a booth at THETA in Hobart from 7-10 April. Drop in and talk to Heath and Dean who is also presenting a session on ‘The future of eResearch user support’ today at 1.30pm.

27-March-2013 The new AAF Virtual Home (VH) has been turned on in the Test environment. Take a look and try it out! We welcome your comments. Send any feedback to support@aaf.edu.au

19-March-2013 The AAF’s Attribute Validator is now in production and displays a current snapshot of your AAF attributes; validates your attributes to check for potential problems; and displays your attribute snapshot history.

15-March-2013. The AAF’s one day Federating Services workshop is designed for developers bringing services into the Federation. The next workshop will be held in Brisbane on Friday 19 April at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). For more information and an outline of the workshop program, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/training/. Registrations close: 15 April 2013.

13-March-2013. A new WAYF server in Sydney to ensure the high availability of the federation has gone live.

19-February-2013 Check out the updated AAF Knowledge Base site where subscribers can help themselves to the information they are searching for. To make it easier for the user, the information has been grouped under End Users and Researchers, Technical Staff and Operational Staff headings. There is also a link to view Federation Status from this page.

04-February-2013 We welcome Karger Publishers and lynda.com as subscribers to the AAF. Karger is an international medical and scientific publisher of online journals and books in various medical specialities. Lynda.com provides a vast library of online instructional videos to help people learn skills to achieve personal or professional goals.

08-January-2013 The AAF Team would like to wish all our subscribers a Happy New Year. Coming soon! AAF Identity Validator displays a current snapshot of your AAF attributes; validates your attributes to check for potential problems; displays your attribute snapshot history.

If you would like to be part of the data testing group, contact support@aaf.edu.au to arrange access.

23-October-2012 eResearch Australasia2012 Conference is just around the corner! Starts 28 October 2012. While you’re there, visit the AAF booth and/or register to attend our half-day workshop “The Federation and Beyond – are you ready?” on 1 November at 1:15pm. See you there!

15-October-2012 The AAF’s new monitoring system provides up-to-date information on the health of the Federation. Check the current status of key federation components including our subscribers’ Identity Providers and Service Providers through the federation status dashboard. You can also track availability and performance and identify problems before they become critical. Federation Status is fully integrated with the Federation Registry.

20-September-2012 Intermittent outages may occur to the VHO and AAF website from 6.00pm Wednesday 26 September to 6.00am Thursday 27 September while we undertake an upgrade of the Discovery Service (DS) and turn on the Federation Status service in Production. The DS upgrade gives users improved UI and Help functionality, and the Federation Status dashboard displays the current status of AAF key components to monitor outages and reduce downtime. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact support@aaf.edu.au.

12-September-2012 Visit the AAF booth at the eResearch Australasia2012 Conference in Sydney from 28 October – 2 November 2012 and/or attend our half-day workshop “The Federation and Beyond – are you ready?” on 1 November at 1:15pm.

Early Bird Registration closes on Sunday 30 September. To review the current program, go to: http://conference.eresearch.edu.au/eres2012/program/. Register Now!

27-August-2012 Paul Stepowski commenced work with us today as Senior Systems Engineer responsible for providing technical support services to our subscribers. Paul is an IT professional with extensive experience in the tertiary education sector and we welcome him to the AAF Team.

01-August-2012 The AAF’s one day Federating Services workshop is designed for developers bringing services into the Federation. The next workshop will be held in Adelaide on Monday 20 August at the University of Adelaide. For more information and an outline of the workshop program, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/training/. Registrations close: 15 August 2012.

18-July-2012 Federation Registry Version2 is HERE! We have successfully upgraded to FR V2 which comes with a number of new features. Thanks to these upgraded features, users will be able to immediately see the benefits in the reporting feature and compatibility with mobile devices such as your iPad and iPhone. If, however, you notice any issues over the next week, please contact our support desk.

18-July-2012 Expressions of Interest are sought for the following positions with the AAF: Business Analyst and Senior Systems Engineer.

Due to the availability of funding to undertake a significant program of work, the Business Analyst will drive key IT initiatives from strategy through to operational results on the project. The Snr Systems Engineer will work as part of the technical team responsible for the delivery of high quality client focused support services to our subscribers. For detailed information about the positions, go to: Jobs@AAF. Applications for both positions close: 4pm AEST on Monday 30 July 2012.

09-July-2012 The Federation Registry (FR) will move to Version2 next week giving users a number of benefits, particularly in the area of reporting eg access to utilisation of services, usage, attributes reports, and its compatibility with mobile devices such as your iPad and iPhone.

Releasing V2 into production will, however, mean that you won’t be able to access the FR for a 24 hour period ie all day Tuesday 17 July. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact support@aaf.edu.au.

4-July-2012 The AAF will be at the QUESTnet 2012 Conference in Cairns from 10-13 July to present:

Half Day Workshop: the Federation and Beyond – are you ready? – Tuesday 10 July
Presentation: What’s behind the AAF Front Door? – Wednesday 11 July

We hope to see you there! More detailed information about both events are on the QUESTnet website.

29-June-2012 The announcement that CAUDIT is to receive project funding of $330,000 from the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISTRE) has been welcomed by the AAF. The funding will support the AAF by a program of strategic initiatives through to 2014. For more information, go to: www.aaf.edu.au/strategic-initiatives/.

18-June-2012 A reminder to all AAF subscribers that Annual Compliance Statements, confirming that they are fully compliant to the Federation Rules, are due on or before 30 June 2012.

Compliance Statements are to be returned by post to: Australian Access Federation, PO Box 9432, Deakin ACT 2600 or by email to compliance@aaf.edu.au. More information is available from the website at http://www.aaf.edu.au/subscribe/compliance/.

21-May-2012 The AAF Manager and Technical Architect attended the REFEDS Meeting on 20 May and are attending the TERENA Networking Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland from 21-24 May 2012. A short presentation was programmed on the AAF including an update on the additional features available with the release of Federation Registry V2.

09-May-2012 You’ll already be aware of how the Federation Registry (FR) utilises information about organisations, Identity Providers and Service Providers who participate in the federation.

Now we want to let you know about the next generation of FR (V2) which will be released in the test environment on 10 May and into the production environment in mid-June.

Here are a few of the benefits you’ll see in FR V2:

• Compatible with mobile devices – use FR on your iPad and iPhone
• Enhanced reporting (utilisation of services, usage)
• Improved wizards – to create a new SP/IdP
• Refined UI
• Enhanced contact management
• Improved attribute support reports
• Exporting of reports to excel spreadsheets

Releasing V2 into production will mean that the FR won’t be available for a 24 hour period, but we’ll give you advance notice of the exact date closer to the time.

01-May-2012 The AAF’s one day Federating Services workshop is designed for developers bringing services into the Federation. The next workshop will be held in Melbourne on Thursday 24 May in the VeRSI Training Room, Thomas Cherry Building. For more information and an outline of the workshop program, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/training/. Registrations close: 21 May 2012.

19-April-2012 The AAF’s one day Federating Services workshop is designed for developers bringing services into the Federation. The next workshop will be held in Sydney on Thursday 26 April in the Intersect Boardroom. For more information and an outline of the workshop program, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/training/. Registrations close: 23 April 2012.

17-April-2012 The AAF Annual General Meeting will be held in conjunction with the CAUDIT Autumn Meeting on Thursday 19 April 2012 at the Stamford Plaza, Brisbane.

16-April-2012 Expressions of Interest are sought for the position of Technical Manager with the AAF. This position is responsible for leading the delivery of our technical services. For detailed information about the position, go to: http://www.aaf.edu.au/jobs/. Applications close: 4 May 2012.

10-April-2012 Project Moonshot is a Janet-led initiative, in partnership with the GEANT project and others, to develop a single unifying technology for extending the benefits of federated identity to a broad range of non-web services. For more information and to register online, go to http://www.rdsi.uq.edu.au/?page=176093&pid=156628.

22-March-2012 As part of the CAUDIT Connect Live! Webinar series, Terry Smith and Heath Marks are presenting a session on Preparing for Higher Levels of Assurance on Wednesday 4 April 2012 from 12:30-13:30pm AEST. The webinar will discuss issues around What are LoAs? Why are they important? Who will need them? Which service will require them? When will they be needed? How much effort is required? and look at the AAF Assurance Framework. Register here.

20-March-2012 NeCTAR and the Australian National Data Service (ANDS) have created a series of one-day workshops aimed at technically proficient eResearchers, software developers, and systems analysts, interested in hosting software services and data in the cloud and networking. The AAF will be represented at the next workshop to be held in Brisbane on 27 March 2012. For more information, go to: https://www.nectar.org.au/events.

Follow-up this workshop by attending a future Federating Services Workshop which the AAF is running nationally to make it easy for you to connect your service to the AAF. For more information and to register your interest in attending a workshop near you, go to: http://www.aaf.edu.au/training/.

23-February-2012 The AAF’s one day Federating eXtreme Services workshop is designed for developers bringing services into the Federation. The first workshop for 2012 will be held in Brisbane on Monday 26 March. For more information and an outline of the workshop program, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/training/. Register Now!

13-February-2012 The AAF Manager and Technical Manager will present a session at the 33rd Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, being held from 13-17 February. There is also opportunities to interact with researchers and practitioners from the Asian Pacific region and beyond during this meeting. A REFEDS meeting has been scheduled to coincide with the timing of the APAN meeting.

23-December-2011 There will be reduced support over the Christmas break from 24 December 2011 – 3 January 2012. For more information, go to: http://support.aaf.edu.au.

20-December-2011 Growing the AAF for the Higher Education and Research communities has been a major goal for the AAF. As universities across the country take advantage of new services coming on board, we are pleased to announce that all 39 Australian universities are now subscribed to the AAF.

15-December-2011 Staff and students from institutions that subscribe to the AAF can now easily and securely access telescope-net by clicking the “Shibboleth” icon (near the top of the telescope-net.com home page) and using the credentials issued to them by their home institution.

05-December-2011 NeCTAR has advised that all Research VMs will be offline between 11am – 4pm on Thursday 8 December as they upgrade the network connectivity of the NeCTAR servers. Please note that this may have some impact on our test environment during this time and could mean a total outage for FR. Test DS instances should remain functional so use of the test environment for logging into services won’t be affected.

25-October-2011 Register now for the Federating eXtreme Services: A Skills Development Workshop to be held on 11 November at the eResearch Australasia2011 Conference.

This one-day workshop is designed for developers bringing services into the Federation and provides useful content for new developers and those who may have previously worked with federated services. Participant numbers will be limited to 20. Have a look at the workshop submission details at: http://conference.eresearch.edu.au/workshops/.

Register for the workshop only at:https://ei.eventinfotech.com.au/ei/getdemo.ei?id=1008&s=_1ES10FK90.

21-October-2011 The AAF is organising a professional community on identity management. The aim is to bring together identity managers from subscriber organisations to form a Community of Practice. The first meeting will be held on 24 October 2011 at the University of Technology, Sydney.

26-August-2011 Our workshop submission Federating eXtreme Services: A Skills Development Workshop has been accepted at the eResearch Australasia2011 Conference.

The workshop will be held on Friday 11 November 2011 and will be facilitated by our technical experts, Terry and Bradley. This one-day workshop is designed for developers bringing services into the Federation and provides useful content for new developers and those who may have previously worked with federated services. Participant numbers will be limited to 20.

Have a look at the workshop submission details at: http://conference.eresearch.edu.au/workshops/.
Be sure to book your place when you register for the conference and/or forward to other interested colleagues. Registration opens soon. Conference details are available at: http://conference.eresearch.edu.au/.

26-July-2011 The latest Shibboleth Security Advisory notice contains important information for Identity and Service Providers on patching that needs to be applied to ensure that the security of your organisation’s systems are maintained.

18-July-2011 An outage on the Test Federation will occur from 7pm-10pm on Tuesday 19 July. The Production environment will not be affected. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact support@aaf.edu.au.

04-July-2011 We welcome Open Universities Australia and QUESTnet & QRNO as subscribers to the Federation. For more information on subscribing to the AAF and to access the Subscription Pack, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/subscribe/.

28-June-2011 Due to a forthcoming upgrade at QUT from cob on Friday 1 July to the morning of Monday 4 July 2011, the following AAF services hosted by QUT will be impacted:

The Federation Registry, VHO, Discovery Service and Support service will remain on-line and will not be affected by this upgrade. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact support@aaf.edu.au.

07-June-2011 All Subscribers and Members of the AAF are required to submit their first Annual Compliance Statement confirming that they are fully compliant to the Federation Rules on or before 30 June 2011.

Compliance Statements are to be returned either by post to:
Australian Access Federation, PO Box 9432, Deakin ACT 2600 or by email to compliance@aaf.edu.au.

27-May-2011 In accordance with the AAF Inc. Constitution, notice is given that the Annual General Meeting of Members of the Australian Access Federation Inc. will be held on Thursday 30 June 2011. For further information about the AAF AGM, please contact the AAF Manager, Heath Marks, via email at heath.marks@aaf.edu.au or by telephone on (07) 3138 1231.
Download 2011 AAF AGM Agenda

23-May-2011 With more countries making active contributions through REFEDS (Research and Education Federations), it remains important that the AAF is represented and continues its engagement and participation with research and education identity federations worldwide. REFEDS is the international group where federations, like the AAF, talk together to make progress and get international collaboration going. Above all else, REFEDS is a community of practitioners actively engaged in access and identity work within their home countries and supportive of standards-compliant developments to enhance international collaboration.

REFEDS has recently announced the launch of its new website. The website and associated outreach work is part of a package of activities funded by a number of research and education networking organisations in Europe, the United States and Australia.

17-May-2011 Check out the new AAF Service Catalogue on our website at: http://www.aaf.edu.au/servicecatalogue/. Other available services will appear in the catalogue as Service Providers enter details into the Federation Registry. Do you use a service you think would benefit from being AAF enabled? Contact the AAF with your suggestions at: http://www.aaf.edu.au/services/suggest-a-service/.

16-May-2011 The Manager, AAF Inc. represented the AAF at the REFEDS Meeting on 15 May and will be attending the TERENA Networking Conference being held in Prague, Czech Republic from 16-19 May 2011.

21-April-2011 To read Computerworld’s article on “AARNet unleashes Cloud storage on educated masses”, go to: http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/383851/aarnet_unleashes_cloud_storage_educated_masses/?fp=4&fpid=5.

07-April-2011 Nimrod Portal, a user-friendly web-based portal for researchers working with parameter sweeps, optimization and scientific workflow applications, now offers researchers from institutions affiliated with the Australian Access Federation (AAF) a single sign-on solution using their home institution’s Identity Provider.

Developed by the Grid Engineering (Message) Lab of the Faculty of Information Technology and the Monash e-Research Centre, lead developer Dr Jefferson Tan said this was made possible thanks to a mini-grant provided by the AAF in 2010. For further information, visit Nimrod Portal: http://www.messagelab.monash.edu.au/Nimrod/WhereToRunNimrod.

06-April-2011 Reminder: TODAY the Federation Registry will be upgraded between 7:00-8:00pm AEST with a short outage window anticipated. See previous entry dated 29 March for full details.

29-March-2011 Federation Registry will be upgraded on Wednesday 6 April 2011 between 7:00-8:00pm AEST with a short outage window anticipated. This will mean an upgrade from FR release 1.1.2 to FR release 1.1.3. A list of enhancements and bugfixes are available at: http://wiki.aaf.edu.au/federationregistry/home/release-113. If you have any questions or concerns, please go to http://support.aaf.edu.au.

24-March-2011 CloudStor is a web service for AARNet users to easily and securely send and receive arbitrarily large files both to/from other AARNet users as well as to/from “external” users. Users access the service using their institutional account; this is made possible through the Australian Access Federation. See the list of AAF Subscribers at: http://www.aaf.edu.au/subscribe/subscribers/.

04-March-2011 The AAF Webinar Series is intended as a resource for the AAF community and provides an opportunity for you to gain access to specialised knowledge from our team of experts. More details soon.

17-February-2011 Catch the AAF Lightning Round on Innovative Federation Uses: Telescopes, Labs, and Clouds at CCA-EDUCAUSE Australasia, 3-6 April 2011, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre (see http://ccaeducause.caudit.edu.au).

Also, don’t miss the AAF Lightning Round on The Future of Identity Federations: Where Will They Add Value? Both Lightning Rounds will be held on the Monday of the Conference (4 April).

Register online NOW. Early Bird registration closes Thursday 3 March 2011.

10-February-2011The Australian Access Federation (AAF) is pleased to announce that our management toolset called ‘Federation Registry’ is now available to other federations under the Apache 2 open source license. Federation Registry is a web application that provides a central point of registration, management and reporting for organizations, identity providers, service providers and system administrators participating in a standards compliant SAML 2 identity federation. The AAF has been running 1.x releases in production to manage the AAF since October 2010 with excellent results and user feedback.

A fully functioning demonstration version is available at https://manager.test.aaf.edu.au/frdemo. Feel free to explore this environment and add data, as we’ll periodically refresh back to a default state. While not shown in the demonstration, production deployments are federation integrated with automated user provisioning. Further information, including source access, is available at http://wiki.aaf.edu.au/federationregistry/.

03-February-2011 Maintenance Window TODAY between 7.00pm – 9.00pm to upgrade to version 1.1 of the Federation Registry. See previous entry for full details.

27-January-2011 An upgrade to version 1.1 of the Federation Registry will occur on 3 February between 7.00pm-9.00pm. This will result in some unavailability of Federation Registry during the maintenance window, but IdPs and services will remain available for end users. To access full details of the activities to be undertaken, see: http://support.aaf.edu.au/entries/416728-federation-registry-1-1-release-notes. If you have any questions or concerns, please go to http://support.aaf.edu.au.

13-December-2010 We welcome the University of Ballarat to the Federation. To subscribe to the AAF, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/subscribe/ to download the Engagement Pack.

09-December-2010 We welcome Ingram Library Services and High Wire Press to the Federation. To join the AAF, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/subscribe/ to download the Engagement Pack.

02-December-2010 A reminder to all users that no changes can be made during the Federation management tools upgrade from 9.00pm Monday 6 December to 9.00am Wednesday 8 December 2010. Access to Federation services will continue to be available during the upgrade. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact support@aaf.edu.au.

25-November-2010 We welcome The Sax Institute, The University of New South Wales, University of the Sunshine Coast and Auckland University of Technology as Members of the Federation. To join the AAF, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

24-November-2010 While Federation management tools are being upgraded, access will be unavailable from 9.00pm Monday 6 December to 9.00am Wednesday 8 December 2010. Access to Federation services will continue to be available during the upgrade. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact support@aaf.edu.au.

04-November-2010 Want to know more about the AAF and how it can assist researchers to access the tools and services they need in their work? Visit the AAF booth at the eResearch Australasia2010 Conference at the RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Staff will be available from 8-11 November to answer your questions and to promote the benefits of joining the AAF.

29-October-2010 We welcome Deakin University and University of New England as Members of the Federation. To join the AAF, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

14-October-2010 In accordance with the AAF Inc constitution, notice is given that the Annual General Meeting of the Members of the Australian Access Federation Inc will be held between 4.00pm and 5.00pm on Thursday 21 October at:
Raffles Rooms 1, 2 & 3
Stamford Plaza Hotel
Cnr of Margaret and Edward Streets, Brisbane
For further information about the AAF AGM, please contact the AAF Project Manager, Heath Marks, via email at heath.marks@aaf.edu.au or by telephone on (07) 3138 1231.

Download 2010 AAF AGM Agenda

06-October-2010 We welcome The University of Notre Dame and Swinburne University of Technology as Members of the Federation. To join the AAF, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

06-October-2010 We welcome The University of Notre Dame and Swinburne University of Technology as Members of the Federation. To join the AAF, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

23-September-2010 The AAF Project Manager, Heath Marks, has been invited to present a session on the AAF at the ARCS Road Show: Enhancing Research Outcomes to be held at QUT Gardens Point Campus on 15 October 2010. For more information about the Brisbane (and other) ARCS road shows which will be held from 11 – 27 October, go to: http://www.arcs.org.au/index.php/component/content/article/353-arcs-road-shows.

15-September-2010 The second one-day AAF Services Authorisation Workshop aimed at predominantly technical staff bringing services into the Federation will be held in Brisbane on 6 October 2010. The first workshop held in Melbourne yesterday generated some good discussion and outcomes. The workshop focuses on how we authorise individuals and groups to access services and the tools to support policy decisions. It’s NOT about deploying your IdP or problems with a service. To register your interest in attending the workshop, or for more information about the program content, please contact Glenys (glenys.kranz@aaf.edu.au).

23-August-2010 We welcome Landcare Research (NZ) as a Member of the Federation. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

13-August-2010 The first one-day AAF Services Authorisation Workshop aimed at predominantly technical staff bringing services into the Federation will be held in Melbourne on 14 September 2010. The workshop will focus on how we authorise individuals and groups to access services and the tools to support policy decisions. It’s NOT about deploying your IdP or problems with a service. A second workshop will be held in Brisbane in late September (date tba). To register your interest in attending either workshop, or for more information about the program content, please contact Glenys (glenys.kranz@aaf.edu.au).

30-July-2010 The AAF is now officially 1 year old and has been providing a production infrastructure to facilitate trusted electronic communications and collaboration within and between the Australian and international higher education and research institutions since June 2009.

22-July-2010 The new online AAF Support Desk has now been federated into the Production environment to make it easier and more efficient for participants to log a job and track the progress of a request. If you have an account, log in to this online support tool to request support. If you don’t have an account as yet, email support@aaf.edu.au for assistance and one of our technical experts will get back to you.

07-July-2010 The AAF is sponsoring a booth at QUESTnet 2010 from 7-9 July and will also be presenting a session entitled ‘The AAF – One Year On’ at 2.20pm on 7 July. If you are a current or potential member of the AAF and have some technical questions to raise, drop in or book a time with one of our AAF staff who will be available to assist you. Also, be in the draw for an AAF polo shirt by leaving us your business card. One draw each day.

29-June-2010 We welcome AARNet Pty Ltd as an AAF Member and BigPulse as an Affiliate to the Federation. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

22-June-2010 We welcome the University of Melbourne and Curtin University as Members of the AAF. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

15-June-2010 The AAF Technical Program Manager, Terry Smith, presented a session on “Privacy and the Australian Access Federation” at this year’s TERENA (Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association) Conference held in Lithuania from 31 May to 3 June. The conference provided an overview of the latest developments in research networking, both in the technical field and in the areas of application and management.

The photo below shows participants at the TERENA Networking Conference who were keen to promote the AAF by wearing the AAF polo shirt. From left are: Victoriano Giralt, University of Malaga; Brook Schofield, TERENA; Licia Florio, TERENA; Diego Lopez, RedIRIS; Klaas Wierenga, Cisco Systems.

7-June-2010 We welcome Bond University and Intersect Australia Pty Ltd to the Federation as Members. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

2-June-2010 Round 3 Mini-grants have been awarded to The University of Southern Queensland & Automated Patrol Telescopes Australia, Flinders University, University of Technology, Sydney, The University of Queensland and the Australian Research Collaboration Service (ARCS). Congratulations to all. For more information go to: http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/mini-grants/grant-recipients/.

18-May-2010 We welcome the University of Canberra as a Member and Evolvingspaces (VIC) Pty Ltd as an Affiliate of the AAF. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

16-May-2010 The AAF have a booth at the AusCERT2010 Conference this week, at the RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Staff from the AAF Project Team are at the conference to answer your questions and to promote the benefits of joining the AAF.

14-May-2010 Visit the AAF booth at the AusCERT2010 Conference this coming week from 17 – 19 May 2010 at the RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Staff from the AAF Project Team will be at the conference to answer your questions and to promote the benefits of joining the AAF.

28-April-2010 The Australian Research Collaboration Service (ARCS) has integrated its new
website with the AAF for easier access to its services and even stronger security protocols. The site (www.arcs.org.au) now conveniently allows users to access ARCS services with their Identity Provider credentials.

23-April-2010 The AAF Inc. Interim Executive Committee, at its meeting 9/22-04-2010, approved the AAF Subscription Fees for 2011. For more details on subscription fees for 2011 see AAF Subscription Fees.

22-April-2010 The AAF Project Manager, Technical Program Manager and Policy, Strategy and Process Development Manager, will be visiting all universities in Perth, Fremantle and Joondalup from 11 – 13 May 2010.

14-April-2010 We welcome DotSec Pty Ltd to the Federation as a Service Provider. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

13-April-2010 We welcome Stuart Allen as the newest member of the AAF Project Team. Stuart started with us this week as a Technical Support Officer and will remain physically located at his home institution (Intersect) while providing technical support to Federation members.

29-March-2010 The Federation Registry utilises information about organisations, partners, administrators, Identity Providers and Service Providers who participate in the federation which it manages. This information is then used to generate reports required by administrators to ensure a viable and active federation is provided for all participants. Additional functionality is currently under active development to make management of Identity Providers, Service Providers and Federation Metadata considerably more streamlined than what is currently available in the AAF toolsets. This functionality will be rolled out in stages over the coming months.

The Federation Registry is accessible to all AAF member institute IdPs at https://manager.aaf.edu.au/federationregistry. For more information, please email enquiries@aaf.edu.au.

16-March-2010 We welcome TPAC (Tasmanian Partnership for Advanced Computing) to the Federation as an Identity Provider. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

08-March-2010 We welcome RMIT University, University of Western Australia and Flinders University to the Federation as Identity Providers. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

05-March-2010 The AAF Project Team will be conducting a number of interstate Roadshows in 2010. The first Roadshow for the year will be held in Melbourne from 29 – 31 March for current and potential Members of the AAF. A second Roadshow is planned for Adelaide on 27 and 28 April (see Events Calendar). The Roadshows can be tailored to meet your particular requirements. For more information or to make a time for the Roadshow to present to your institution, contact Glenys Kranz, AAF Change & Communication Manager (glenys.kranz@aaf.edu.au).

01-March-2010 We welcome Damien Mannix as the newest member of the AAF Project Team. Damien started with us today as Technical Support Officer and will remain physically located at his home institution (VeRSI) while providing technical support to Federation members.

26-February-2010 We welcome University of Adelaide (Member) and RMIT Publishing (Affiliate) to the Federation. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

19-February-2010 We welcome Charles Sturt University to the Federation as an Identity Provider. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

15-February-2010 Mini-grants of up to $40,000 are being offered by the AAF to assist current and potential Service Providers with deployment of their service(s) to the Federation. Round 3 closes on 26 February 2010. For more information go to: www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/mini-grants/

05-February-2010 We welcome Macquarie University to the Federation as an Identity Provider and Talis Information Limited as a Service Provider. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

01-February-2010 We welcome Murdoch University and University of Technology Sydney to the Federation as Identity Providers and NetSpot Pty. Ltd. as a Service Provider. To join the Federation, go to http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to download the Engagement Pack.

27-January-2010 The AAF has been asked to present and take part in a panel discussion at the 29th APAN Meeting to be held in Sydney from 8-11 February 2010. This meeting is the Asia Pacific’s foremost event for showcasing advanced broadband networking applications and technologies for research and education.

22-January-2010 AAF Mini-grants were awarded to Monash University, Queensland University of Technology, RMIT University, University of Queensland, University of South Australia and University of Tasmania.
Round 3 is now open and will close on 26 February 2010. For more information go to: www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/mini-grants/

07-January-2010 We welcome ANSTO, eResearchSA, University of Queensland and VPAC to the Federation as Identity Providers. Go to www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to find out more information and download the Joining Engagement Pack.

07-January-2010 Round 3 of the AAF Mini-grant Scheme is now open! Round 3 will close on 26 February 2010. For more information visit the Mini-grants page.

08-December-2009 Round 1 of the AAF Mini-grant Scheme closed on 30 October 2009. The CSIRO has been successful in its application and will use the Mini-grant to allow the Geosciences community to access AuScope Grid Portal and associated services via the user’s home organisation’s authentication system using the AAF.

03-December-2009 We welcome Lincoln University to the Federation as an Identify Provider. To join the Federation, go to the Joining page to download the Engagement Pack.

23-November-2009 Mini-grants of up to $40,000 are being offered by the AAF to assist current and potential Service Providers with deployment of their service(s) to the Federation. Round 2 closes 27 November 2009. Round 3 now opens 1 January 2010. For more information go to: www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/mini-grants/

23-November-2009 The MAMS Testbed Federation will be decommissioned and replaced by the AAF production environment on 30 November. For this reason, existing members are encouraged to join the AAF as soon as possible. Go to www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/join/ to find out more information and download the Joining Engagement Pack.

Support to migrate your services to the AAF is now available by emailing support@aaf.edu.au.

19-November-2009 We welcome The Australian Catholic University, The University of Auckland and University of Canterbury to the Federation as Identify Providers.To join the Federation, go to the Joining page to download the Engagement Pack.

18-November-2009 The Project Manager, Technical Program Manager and Policy, Strategy and Process Development Manager, will be in Sydney on 30 November and 1 December to discuss the AAF’s activities with a number of universities. If you would like to book time to meet with the AAF team on these days, contact heath.marks@aaf.edu.au

03-November-2009 The MAMS Testbed Federation will be decommissioned and replaced by the AAF production environment on 30 November. This means there will no longer be any support for MAMS after this date. For this reason, existing members are encouraged to join the AAF as soon as possible. Go to the Joining page to find out more information and to download the Joining Engagement Pack.

02-November-2009 A number of applications were received in Round 1 and successful applicants will be notified shortly. Round 2 is now open and will close on 27 November 2009. For more information go to the Mini-grants page.