Following the September announcement of its first tools for managing risk in digital trust ecosystems, today the ToIP Foundation announced three more pairs of tools to assist in the task of generating digital governance and trust assurance schemes:
- The ToIP Governance Framework Matrix and Companion Guide.
- The ToIP Trust Assurance and Certification Template and Companion Guide.
- The ToIP Trust Criteria Matrix Template and Companion Guide.
“These three new tools—each with its accompanying Companion Guide—are explicitly designed to simplify and streamline the process of developing robust governance for any digital trust community building on ToIP infrastructure,” said Scott Perry, co-chair of the ToIP Governance Stack Working Group (GSWG) and a certified WebTrust auditor. “They can help turn a job that often takes years into one that takes weeks or months.”
The physical credentials we use today, such as credit card and driver’s licenses, have governance frameworks and trust assurance schemes built by governments and industry associations over many years. Now we are moving to digital credentials verified using cryptography, we need to make the process of adapting these existing governance frameworks—or creating new ones explicitly tailored for digital life—much easier and faster.
“Governance is both simple and complex. Everyone has their own ideas of what Governance is and should be. The complexity comes when multiple parties need to agree on what it is and should be,” said Savita Farooqui, GSWG member and primary author of the Governance Framework Matrix. “The Governance Framework Matrix divides the problem in small chunks and provides a flexible framework to define governance and seek agreements.”
The Governance Framework Matrix is a recipe for setting the process of governance in motion. Without a starter set of governance topics to drive discussion and consensus, governing bodies stall in its formation.
The Trust Assurance Companion Guide explains in detail, in plain language, how accountability is generated from community participation in a governance framework.
“The Trust Assurance Template and Companion Guide is akin to the ‘Cliff Notes of Accountability’,” said Drummond Reed, GSWG co-chair. “When you combine it with the Trust Criteria Matrix, it means you don’t need to be a cybersecurity audit professional to grasp what is needed to meet the accountability requirements of your digital trust ecosystem.”