Accredited institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, and commercial organizations located in the US can submit a proposal to convene the steering group and provide it with secretarial, administrative, and logistical support.
Proposers are expected to maintain a neutral stance toward the outcome of the steering group process and must agree not to become a voting member of the steering group, NIST said in a release.
The organization selected would serve as the secretariat for the steering group during its initial and early phases. The secretariat should serve as an “honest broker between multiple stakeholders”, with a focus on facilitating the creation of consensus standards and policies for the identity ecosystem, NIST explained.
Plans for the steering group were originally announced last month. NIST said the steering group should be structured to safeguard protections for individual privacy and the underrepresented through mechanisms such as a special privacy coordination committee and an appointed ombudsman.
Last April, President Obama released the NSTIC as a way to improve security in cyberspace and e-commerce. NSTIC will chart a course for the public and private sectors to collaborate to raise the level of trust associated with the identities of individuals, organizations, networks, services, and devices involved in online transactions.