News Archive

News and announcements concerning the South African Identity Federation.

Logo & Branding Update

A new version of the SAFIRE logo has been produced, and is in the process of being trademarked. Various proposals were circulated amongst a fairly diverse group of people, and they were asked to vote. The final version is the one that both had the broadest appeal and was most accessible. Any use of the old “Federating Research & Education Systems” logo will need to be updated/replaced. New versions will be available in the logos & branding section once we’re reasonably sure the IP concerns have been sufficiently addressed.

Website update, Sept 2016

We’ve been talking about a new web site for some time, and had hoped to relaunch a new, complete site with a fresh look and feel once we’d managed to get the design work completed. What you’re seeing isn’t that site; it’s an interim update, with some new content. Unfortunately the whole exercise was immeasurably complicated by needing to redevelop the SAFIRE logo branding to address some intellectual property concerns. That process has taken many months to sort out, and has stalled all sorts of things that depend on a brand and logo.

Metadata refresh during transition

SAFIRE is currently transitioning from a full-mesh federation to a hub-and-spoke federation. As we change architectures, we will be asking all participants to re-submit their metadata. The current metadata has known errors, and so we want to ensure we don’t inadvertently port any others. We will instead apply the prevailing metadata registration practice statement at the time of the transition. The identity- and service provider lists shown on this website are generated automatically from the underlying metadata and, at the time of writing, reflect the metadata from the full-mesh federation.

WAYF collaboration

The late 2015, the SAFIRE steering committee approved a proposal to collaborate with the Danish federation, WAYF. The intent was to gain insight and experience from the Danes, in the hopes of spring-boarding our own federation into production. As part of this collaboration, the newly appointed Project Director will spend a week at WAYF’s offices in Denmark before travelling to REFEDS 32 and TNC16. During this visit, he will be exposed to all aspects of WAYF’s operations — technical, policy, and governance.

SAFIRE Project Director appointed

Guy Halse has been appointed as the Project Director for SAFIRE. This follows a formal process that was run by TENET with the approval of the SAFIRE steering committee. Guy has already been an integral part of the SAFIRE project and with this appointment, he will undoubtedly guide the project to a sustainable future. Everyone on the SAFIRE project team would like to congratulate Guy on his appointment and we look forward to working with him.

Vacancy: SAFIRE Project Director

A vacancy for the SAFIRE Project Director has been advertised at the following link: http://www.tenet.ac.za/doc/vacancy-safire-project-director The vacancy has been advertised by TENET, the juristic entity of record during the development phase of the South African Identity Federation Project, who acts on behalf of the Project in legal and contractual matters.

Updates to Attributes for SAFIRE

At the SAFIRE Planning meeting, a set of core attributes for SAFIRE were discussed and decided upon. These may see minor updates as the project implementation progresses, but they represent rough consensus as to what’s needed. A list of attributes that SAFIRE supports is available.

South African Identity Federation