FedID 2020: Creating a Federal “Learning Agenda” for Identity

Written by: Duane Blackburn and Dan Woolley • April 1, 2020

From 2003-2011 there was a coordinated, whole of government, effort to identify, prioritize, and overcome the federal government’s current and future identity capability gaps. Given the timeframe, primary areas of concern were homeland security and overseas military operations, with an extensive focus on biometric technologies. This effort was led by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and implemented through the interagency National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), with close collaboration with peer entities that coordinated operational policies for the federal government: the National Security Council, Homeland Security Council, and the CIO Council.

During those years, FedID (then called the Biometric Consortium Conference) was the NSTC’s venue for discussing these activities and needs with the public-private identity community. The NSTC developed the first National Biometrics Challenge in 2006, which was released at the conference that year, to “describe the major challenges that must be addressed by the biometrics community.” Subsequent conferences were organized around these challenges, enabling the exchange of insights and promoting public-private collaboration.

Identity matters are once again at the precipice of fundamentally altering government operations, but this time the growth and strategies will be driven by the private sector (in a market that is expected to expand to over $20B by 2024) and leveraged by federal agencies -- the federal government itself won’t be in the drivers’ seat for current areas of need and future growth (such as government-citizen interactions) as it was for prior areas of focus (such as terrorist screening). The government will still have a large and important role, however.

We’re also approaching a point in the federal government’s quadrennial cycle where new political appointees will soon be determining priorities and setting the strategic direction of federal activities for the ensuing four years. In the interim they will be seeking information on topics and issues that are important for their agencies and for which they’re previously unaware, as well as recommended actions from trusted experts. The president will also be required to publish the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) early in their term to highlight priority whole-of-government issues and to drive interagency actions on those issues throughout their term.

To support the development of the next PMA, and to meet additional requirements from the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, the Office of Management and Budget is using the concept of “Learning Agendas”, which agencies are required to develop to “identify, prioritize, and establish strategies to develop evidence to answer important short- and long-term” strategic and operational questions. OMB will also lead the development of government-wide management Learning Agendas through its GEAR Center.

The convergence of needing to support different identity matters and the upcoming federal quadrennial planning cycle provides a great opportunity for the federal identity community. The FedID Planning Committee thus decided to use the 2020 conference as a venue to prepare the community for the next four-year federal cycle. While we’ll still have many of the elements you’ve come to expect from prior years, we’ll also be using the Forum to develop a public-private “Learning Agenda” for federally-focused identity matters.

The first step for the Planning Committee was to work with their peers throughout government, industry, and academia to identify priority interagency issues. These serve as the basis for the FedID Call for Program Ideas, which was issued on 1 April. The Planning Committee is seeking information on these topics, and ideas on how the identity community can best discuss them at FedID in order to develop public-private consensus on how to jointly overcome them in the future.

Based on inputs received, the Planning Committee will select a subset to focus on during the conference via presentations, panels, and/or workshops. A volunteer team from MITRE will then summarize the information discussed and consensus recommendations developed during the event into a Learning Agenda-styled document. The FedID community can then use these recommendations to drive their individual actions, collaborative activities, and future FedID events. We can also present this document to presidential transition teams, new political leadership, and career OMB officials for their use while planning federal activities for the next presidential term.

The 2020 FedID is therefore your opportunity to provide information and ideas that will influence the strategic direction of federally-focused identity activities over the next four years. Step #1 is reviewing the Call for Program Ideas and submitting your ideas before it closes at the end of May.

The Planning Committee is anxious to review your initial ideas and to then develop a FedID agenda that will help drive federal identity activities for the next four years!

Duane Blackburn is a co-chair of the Federal Identity Forum, focusing on coordinating the work of the interagency and public-private Planning Committee. He previously managed federal identity S&T policy for both the Bush and Obama administrations as an Assistant Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is currently an S&T Policy Analyst for the MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit company that works across the government, through its FFRDCs and public-private partnerships, to tackle problems that challenge our nation’s safety, stability, and well-being.

Dan Woolley is a MITRE employee that guides federal executives on public-private partnerships that engage researchers, academics, non-profits and the private industry to use creative, data-driven, and interdisciplinary approaches as they improve mission delivery and services to citizens. Prior to joining MITRE, he had spent over 40 years building successful global teams, led international cyber security organizations, and has been an active early stage investor in cyber security, “smart cities”, AI and digital heath care startups.

New FedID – New Exhibits

Written by: Ben Smith, FedID Co-chair • March 17, 2020

In addition to the new venue, program design, and activities Duane outlined in the previous post, we’re rolling out an entirely new exhibit hall strategy—exhibits are clustered around hubs which will encourage open collaboration where attendees and exhibitors with an interest in a particular topic can come together and discuss requirements and solutions, share technical knowledge, and build relationships with other identity professionals. The Planning Committee, along with the entire event team, has selected the following engagement areas:

• Authentication & Lifecycle Management
• Federation & Assertions
• Enrollment & Identity Proofing

Also new this year is an entirely turn-key exhibit kiosk option, designed to save companies money in both shipping and labor. This new offering provides an affordable, streamlined alternative to traditional exhibit space options. We feel that both of these modifications are perfectly suited to the type of attendees FedID exhibitors have come to expect – this is not a drive-by (high volume, low impact) exhibit hall, but rather a venue for more detailed conversations with federal decisionmakers.

As always, please email our team or call 703-995-2567 if you have any questions. Together with the LinkedIn discussion group and Twitter (#FedID), we hope you’ll make this blog a part of your regular feed to ensure you get updates and further information on new features of FedID 2020. We look forward to seeing you there!

Ben Smith is a co-chair of the Federal Identity Forum and has been planning events and supporting AFCEA’s mission and programs since 1998.

• Less concurrent tracks, and more all-attendee sessions
• Better balances between:
  • government talking and government listening to the private sector
  • one-way presentations and public-private dialogue
• Strategically redesigned exhibit hall:
  • to better enable a variety of participants
  • Organized to facilitate greater discussion
• Evening service and excursion opportunities so that attendees can better connect on a personal level

We’re also designing a new FedID awards program to recognize those individuals that have made the greatest impact on the federal identity community over the past year!

As the Planning Committee designs FedID 2020, we anticipate needing much more input from the identity community than in any prior planning cycle. We’ll need recommendations on innovations & novel ideas that the government needs to learn about, what the private sector needs from the government to ensure its future success, who should be recognized for a new FedID award, and more. The exact mechanisms and schedule for requesting this input hasn’t yet been finalized, but we anticipate having multiple opportunities over the next few months.

In the interim, please continue to exchange news and ideas about federal identity related matters on our LinkedIn discussion group and/or on twitter using #FedID. We look forward to seeing you in September at FedID, as well as in multiple other interactions in the interim!

Duane Blackburn is a co-chair of the Federal Identity Forum, focusing on coordinating the work of the interagency and public-private Planning Committee. He previously managed federal identity S&T policy for both the Bush and Obama administrations as an Assistant Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is currently an S&T Policy Analyst for the MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit company that works across the government, through its FFRDCs and public-private partnerships, to tackle problems that challenge our nation’s safety, stability, and well-being.