The meeting received reports from the DIF's three work areas: Certification, Education,
and Standardization, and from the Identity Management work area in which the DIF
co-operates with the Security and Messaging Forums. The DIF also received reports on
progress in standards bodies relevant to Directory: the IETF, X.500, and OASIS.
The standards for directory access and inter-operation are now mature. Work in the IETF
is concluding, and there are no new work item proposals in X.500. The main standardization
focus is now on XML-based standards related to Identity Management. This work is being
carried out in OASIS.
The DIF will pursue Identity Management jointly with other Forums within the Identity
Management work area. Its core activities, now that the Directory standards are mature,
will focus particularly on:
- Certification of conformance and interoperability, and
- Education of the market on the value of directory interoperability, and of certification
as an assurance of interoperability.
The DIF reviewed its charter in the light of these considerations, and confirmed that
its charter is still valid and relevant.
