Working Group Agreement

The Identity Commons will support the community by allowing its name and brand to be used in conjunction with groups of individuals and/or organizations that organize themselves to pursue work that is consistent with IC's Purpose And Principles.

To ensure this consistency, working group proposers and participants must read and agree to abide by the Identity Commons ByLaws and Articles of Incorporation.

It is important to note that the use of IC's brand does not imply that the Working Group is doing work on behalf of IC. Each working group is doing its own work and is responsible for the quality and reliability of its products. The use of the IC brand only means that the working group has organized and governed its work in a way that is consistent with IC's Purpose and Principles. IC warrants nothing further.

To be considered for IC recognition, a working group must have:

1. A written agreement among its participants that states the working group's:
   1. Purposes and scope of work,
   2. Qualifications and requirements for participation, if any,
   3. Required licenses or any other restrictions on uses of the working group's work product, if any,
   4. Method(s) of making decisions together, as needed, and,
   5. Any other agreements that seem necessary.
2. At least one primary and one alternate individual who is charged by the working group to be its representative on the StewardsCouncil and ensure that its operation is consistent with the IC Purpose and Principles.
3. A publicly accessible website that on which the agreements are posted and the responsible individual(s) are named.

These agreements do not have to be in a tight, legal format. It is much more important that they are clear and straight forward, at least to the participants in the working group and to the Stewards Council. The Working Group Charter Template was developed for this purpose.

Once recognized, the individual(s) charged to ensure conformance with IC's Purpose And Principles must be participant(s) in good standing in the Stewards Council, which will be organized by those individuals and the IC Board.

Should serious issues arise about the operation of a working group or its consistency with IC's Purpose And Principles, recognition of a working group can be revoked at the sole discretion of the Stewards Council as empowered by the formal legal board of Identity Commons (still under formation -- see Background). We hope this is a rare (or nonexistent) occurence.