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	Attribute recommendations for AAF participants
	Survey results: common attributes and schemas
	Terms of reference

What is the auEduPerson working group?

The auEduPerson working group reports to the Australian Access Federation (AAF) Steering Committee. The working group is tasked with drafting and recommending data attributes for use with the AAF, based on the community's requirements and on interoperability with other key federations. The auEduPerson working group will specify the syntax, semantics, and constraints of a set of user attributes that satisfy the requirements of the AAF, and it will coordinate the process to achieve agreement on those attribute definitions by AAF stakeholders.

Why is this important for the AAF?

The AAF provides a framework for trust between identity providers, who manage identity information for users at their institution, and service providers, who manage services or resources to which users want to gain access.

• The service provider trusts that user information provided by the identity provider is accurate according to agreed definitions of information elements.
• The identity provider trusts that the service provider will deliver a particular service and will handle user information in an agreed manner, especially to prevent unauthorised disclosure.

The user information provided by the identity provider is used by the service provider to make decisions on whether the user is authorised to access the resource. This user information includes:

• Authentication information, such as who the identity provider is, the method of authentication, and the level of assurance.
• Attribute information, a set of user attributes according to a defined attribute schema.

Therefore, an important aspect of trust in the AAF is agreement on the set of attributes supported by the AAF and their definitions -- syntax, semantics, and constraints.

Will I have to change my current directory schema to implement the recommended attributes?

Not necessarily. An institution can continue to use its current directory schema without change, so long as the relevant attributes can be mapped exactly against the common attributes used with the AAF. This is enabled by ShARPE, a tool developed by the MAMS project that provides a web interface for managing attribute release policies and for mapping between existing directory attributes and attributes required for the AAF.

Who is on the auEduPerson working group?

The working group has the following members:

Patty McMillan (Chair), UQ and MAPS Project
Peter Austin, WALAP
David Bannon, VPAC
Anthony Beitz, ARCHER Project
Neil James, New Zealand SCIT
Rodney McDuff, UQ
Viviani Paz, AusCERT and AAF Project Manager
Alex Reid, AARNet
Leon Troeth, Monash
Lyle Winton, PILIN and eFramework Projects
Neil Witheridge, MAMS Project
John Zornig, UQ

and international affiliates:

Victoriano Giralt, University of Malaga and TF-EMC2
John Paschoud, London School of Economics
Ian Young, The University of Edinb