Announcement of Cloud & Accessibility Public Working Group Formation

Announcement of Cloud & Accessibility Public Working Group Formation

The NIST Cloud Computing Program has stressed that the three major challenge areas for USG adoption for cloud computing are:  security, portability & interoperability.  The USG Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap lists 10 requirements and several Priority Action Plans that should be followed to fulfill the requirements.  Requirement #7 states:

Defined unique government regulatory requirements and solutions

Ensuring that all citizens have equal access to information is a unique government regulatory requirement and accessibility is considered to be fundamental to the solution.  Cloud computing solutions that address and highlight accessibility offer a path forward for an agency to fulfill its mission and requirements by providing a larger number of potential solutions that USG IT managers can use to be creative in the development of new services and solve their unique accessibility requirements.  As work progresses in cloud computing, it is important to promote, incorporate and discuss applicable standards in accessibility for cloud computing services as a discipline for investigation.

NIST Cloud Computing Program announces formation of new Public Working Group on "Cloud and Accessibility."  The first meeting will be held via telecon on June 4, 2013 from 11 am - 1 pm EDT.  This PWG will address the topics facing cloud computing with respect to accessibility, standards and usage of common application categories.  The PWG will align into sub-teams dedicated to the application categories.  The application categories under investigation are:

• Enterprise collaboration Tools - email, calendaring, IM
• Resource/budget planning/management tools
• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Web server / Content Management
• Identity Management
• Document Retrieval / Library Systems

Participation in the working groups is free and open to all interested parties.  You may register for the NIST Cloud Computing Mailing List and Twiki (with Accessibility page) at:  http://www.nist.gov/itl/cloud/workinggroups.cfm

CAPWG Meeting          Date

1                        June 4, 2013
2                        July 2, 2013
3                        August 6, 2013
4                        September 3, 2013
5                        September 24, 2013

Dial up information:

Phone:  877-953-0273

Participant code:  456 4979

There will also be an associated workshop on "Cloud and Accessibility" held at the National Science Foundation on Wednesday June 12, 2013.  The workshop is free to all.  Registration for this workshop is at:  http://www.nitrd.gov/rsvp/cloud_workshop.aspx