[xacml] Major milestone achieved, and next step...

[Carlisle Adams <carlisle.adams@entrust.com>]

Title: Major milestone achieved, and next step...

Hello all,

Sometime after the inception of the XACML TC, the Policy Model (PM) subcommittee was formed.  Its task was to "define a framework for the specification and evaluation of access control rules" in such a way that the framework is "flexible and expressive enough to support different access control policies that may need to be applied (and have been proposed or are used in different real-world scenarios)".

After 6 months of hard work, and especially following a very productive face-to-face meeting earlier this month, I am pleased to announce that this subcommittee has completed the goal stated above.  Discussion with various members of the subcommittee, including the chair (Pierangela Samarati, U. Milan), confirms that there is now consensus on all substantive aspects of the model.  Model issues may occasionally arise and need resolution as the TC continues its journey toward the final XACML 1.0 specification, but at this time the PM work is considered to be complete.

This is a major milestone since some of the differences in understanding and terminology among the subcommittee members seemed, at times, to be almost insurmountable.  Congratulations to all involved, and many thanks to Pierangela for her efforts in guiding this work to a successful conclusion!

The next step is to turn the agreed-upon model into syntax:  an XML schema that is implementable and interoperable.  Significant achievements have been made in this direction already (see the XACML v0.11 specification), but many details remain to be worked out.  A Schema subcommittee, effective immediately, will "take the baton" from the PM subcommittee and complete the detailed syntax work.  Ernesto Damiani (U. Milan) has graciously offered to chair this new subcommittee, lending his XML expertise to this task.

Unless conditions change, the Schema subcommittee will use the time slot previously allocated to the PM subcommittee for its meetings (that is, weekly teleconferences on Mondays, from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. EST).  All TC members with an interest in XML schema discussions are encouraged to become active participants in this subcommittee.

Thanks again to the Policy Model subcommittee for its achievements, and we look forward to similar great things from the Schema subcommittee!

Carlisle.