Distributed enrollment of ID data demonstrated in OSIA Advisory Committee meeting

Members of the open standards identity initiative demonstrated the live simultaneous collection of sensitive ID data like biometrics from multiple enrollment stations distributed across the globe for the creation of physical ID cards and associated mobile wallets. The demonstration came during the third bi-annual meeting of its OSIA (Open Standards Identity APIs) Advisory Committee, held this month by the Secure Identity Alliance (SIA).

The two-day meeting included more than 35 members of government organizations, along with representatives of 20 public and private sector companies from around the ID industry. More than 15 countries from Africa and the Asia-Pacific region participate in OSIA’s Advisory Committee.

OSIA is a collaborative organization working towards the development of a universal interoperability framework to promote innovation, competition, and sustainability in the identity market.

“Access to critical health and financial support is dependent on identity,” states Engr. Aliyu Abubakar Aziz, director general and CEO of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and chair of the OSIA Advisory Committee. “This, in turn, relies on the ability to easily and securely share citizen data between foundational and sectoral IT systems. This message is all too easily lost.”

The OSIA Advisory Committee set out the group’s development priorities in a February meeting.

“Interoperability is a key aspect for state-of-the-art national digital identity systems. At a stroke, interoperability eliminates proprietary barriers, breaks down information silos, drives innovation and maximizes investment in existing digital infrastructures,” said Debora Comparin, Chair of the OSIA Initiative.

“We’re seeing an explosion in the use of APIs across many industry sectors (Telecoms, Banking etc.) So, why not widely adopt this approach in identity?” Comparin adds.

Version 5.0.0 of the OSIA specification is now available from GitHub, and the group has also initiated the development of a testing plan in partnership with Fime, with plans to announce a certification process in 2021.

Article Topics

biometric enrollment  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  identity management  |  interoperability  |  OSIA (Open Standards Identity API)  |  research and development  |  Secure Identity Alliance