Current News

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.