Peter Wittenburg
CLARIN Research Infrastructure
DASISH Cluster Project
EUDAT Data Infrastructure
The Language Archive – Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Nijmegen, The Netherlands

• our (CLARIN) problem was stated in 2005 at
ECRI in Nottigham: building virtual collections as a coming “global” scenario
• started to implement a FIM test domain and to talk to Terena and eduGain in the hope of solutions
• it’s 6 years ago !!!
• since then we tried to push things, but
• do we have an operational solution?
• who is responsible for doing what?
• how much do we need to know/do?

• until 2011 I was active and part of the pushing team in CLARIN together with Daan & Dieter (from MPI) and others
• I was/am a data practitioner
• now I changed to another role
• these old people are dangerous
• they tend to become impatient and get a biting voice 
• now I am allowed to be blunt from a community perspective: the situation is still a mess

(slide from Larry Lannom)
Enabling
Technologies
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Discovery
Access
(ref. resolution, protocols, AAI)
Scientists, Data Curators,
End Users, Applications Interpretation
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Datasets
Accessed via Repositories
Reuse

• current functions in CLARIN D relevant for AAI
• MD component registry access
• virtual collection registry (write access)
• weblicht web application access
(chaining without delegation, busy with a workaround based on certificates)
• BBAW web application access
• MPI web application based data access
• tested/planned are:
• access to BBAW and IDS resources
• monitoring of centers (nagios) by Jülich CC
• center registry (write access) at Garching CC
• service hosting/deployment, access to workspaces at CC

• what are we facing in CLARIN D
• 4 of 9 centers with SP (in CLARIN SPF)
• 7 of 9 centers have IdPs in DFN AAI
• centers act as IdPs and SPs - different agreements
• web services check at application access level
• i.e. no delegation - only ok for a closed domain
• big problem:
• some IdPs deliver NO attributes
• some deliver just EPTID (diff per SP, number) i.e. no useful credentials for AAI

• same functions intended but now across borders
• until now MPI SP contract partner - will go over to CLARIN ERIC
• MPI has contracts with all centers that act as SP
( MPI (NL), INL (NL), Meertens (NL), IDS (DE), BBAW (DE), UTU (DE), CSC (FI),
ATILF-CNRS (FR), UFAL (CZ))
• MPI has contracts with 7 NRENs ( SurfFederatie ( SP metadata , IdP metadata ), DFN ( metadata ), HAKA ( metadata , pem ), Kalmar Union (via
HAKA metadata ): FEIDE (Norway), WAYF (Denmark + Iceland), SWAMID
(Sweden))
• but does not scale (negotiations with CZ and UK (JANET) take months/years)
(this needs to be almost an automatism)

• in EUDAT we are working across disciplines all with different AAI
• CLARIN as shown
• ENES (climate modeling) have own federation
• LifeWatch, VPH, EPOS in pre FIM state (as many others)
• different requirements for services
• Safe replication only between “trusted centers”, but access to copies
•
• Staging to HPC pipes by users using GridFTP
• Medatata aggregation all is open - no AAI required
SimpleStore
• Hosting many researchers nr. of centers
• general trends
Q4: CLARIN, DARIAH,
CESSDA, LifeWatch, etc
Q1: ENES, etc.
nr. of users
• don’t dare to explain the intended solution 

• AAI is a complex field with different types of players
• we lack a proper technical infrastructure
• lack a fully operational AAI infrastructure for Q4 domains
• lack a gateway between Shib & Certificate domains
• lack attempt to solve the delegation issue
• we lack agreements on trust establishment
• the whole “game” is not understood by some players
(SPs are thought to come from big commerce only)
• IdPs do what they like (often restrictive interpretations)
(administrators decide and not researchers)
• NRENs don’t sign “official” agreements
• we have a new CoC - will it help to overcome barriers?
• what are the consequences
• disciplines are going their own way reinventing the wheel, creating sub-scenes, etc.
• a lot of hobbyism takes place creating islands

• who feels now responsible and will lead a concerted action
• what to expect from eduGain
• eduGain seems to be ready for European MD exchange
• currently only few (?) agreements, opt-in for IdPs
• standard MD profile not yet broadly used
• CLARIN pilot with eduGain: we as SPs sign special CoC
• who takes responsibility for a proper technical solution
ESFRI projects - GEANT - EUDAT - Grid - ???
isn’t it the terrain of GEANT - but I lost my hope
• who takes responsibility to tackle policy problems
ESFRI - ESFRI projects - EC - ministries - ??
• who will get all player focused to make real steps
I can see a clear role for FIM - but needs to be broad and massive

• it’s like an SOS call from communities
• we cannot agree with the situation and the way things are dealt with
• so much time and money invested with little output for communities
• we need a concerted action in Europe, since research is about competition and shared access to distributed data and services will be key
• why does it seem again that we need the US to achieve breakthroughs

Thanks for your attention.