NMFS e-signature Working Group
July 11, 2008 Meeting Notes
Welcome
- Larry kicked things off.
- There is a NMFS policy and procedural directive that implements the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA), which says federal agencies can accept e-signatures. Both the law and NMFS policy gives e-signatures them the same validity as a paper signature.
- As a result, we are working to establish an e-signature program within NMFS.
- We want to come up with an implementation that will help other programs with the recipe we create in this e-signature working group.
(More detail on these drivers in Meeting of June 30 2008)
- While our program was coming along, Susan Molina, with the National Permits System, has come a long ways towards an implementation of eSignature in a specific context.
- We have been talking about how we can partner.
- Susan is working to deliver a specific solution
- We want to expand on her work to develop a broader approach that will hopefully help a wider scope of business-to-government and citizen-to-government eSignature projects.
- What will we have accomplished by Jan 09?
- Approved E-Sig implementation plan
- We will not have done a software development project.
- What does success look like?
- Understand the E-sig opportunities and challenges
- Secured approval from the OCIO, General Counsel (GC), and GC Enforcement Litigation
- Positioned for software development or procurement.
(More detail in Charter for eSignature Team)
- E-Signature is not primarily a technical challenge; it's more of a social change challenge.
- We reviewed the agenda and Purpose and Outcomes (see slides)
- We reviewed the Principles Distinction
- Move on despite ambiguity
- Listen as allies
- Get to the point
- Give criticism with upgrades
- Finish each part
- We went over the team introductions.
- Themes:
- There is a larger population of people who need a solution than we thought
- A lot of expertise
- A strong desire to get things done.
- Relatively limited amount of time for people.
- Good representation across regions, but missing someone from Northeast
- We could use a real Fisheries person.
- A regulation writer, someone who has done an EIS, NEPA, FMP (Fisheries Management Plan).
- We should look at PFMC - Pacific Fisheries Management Council
(Dayna will look into that)
- We should look at PFMC - Pacific Fisheries Management Council
- A regulation writer, someone who has done an EIS, NEPA, FMP (Fisheries Management Plan).
- NOTES:
- Distribute periodic updates for stakeholders (weekly or bi-weekly summaries of progress)
- We should get someone from the North East.
- Susan's Presentation (See slides)
- The goals of her project are
- Consistent national online system for permit applications/renewals/customer service/management
- They need to find out who the participants are, who their partners are, what they need, etc.
- Currently not everything is accepted by the national permits team.
- The technical is the easiest part.
- The presentation:
- Most of our users are Existing Permit Owners
- Should we collect SSNs?
- NMS has the authority and responsibility to collection SSNs during the permit application process , but local practice is affected by concerns for data protection.
- We need to examine and document the business risks of not collecting SSNs.
- SSA will validate the relationship between names and SSNs on a yes/no basis.
- We need the "green light" from general council in order to clarify authority for NMFS to collect SSNs.
- Balsinger may need to clarify the legal mandate.
- The permits are a many to many setup. Many people can own a single permit and a single person can own many permits.
- It is difficult to track our customers and the agents who are acting on behalf of others.
- It is then difficult to track exactly who is who and who is participating because of the brokers and the agents involved.
- Right now we verify identification by sending information through the mail.
- This could be avoided by using SSNs - it would simplify things.
- Do we have enough top-level authority to help push buy-in by all the little players?
- There are people who are able to opt out.
- For the "signing ceremony" language - it would work better to have the GPEA language than the E-Signature Act language.
- The VA might have good language or the E-Authentication Portal will have a list of projects using.
- The goals of her project are
- Susan's Presentation (See slides)
- Themes:
- Timeline
- Steve reviewed the project timeline.
- We are currently at the beginning of the second phase in Susan's life-cycle road map.
- For the alternatives analysis - we can think of this more as an effective due diligence rather than an exhaustive list of alternatives.
- We should at least mention the heavy weight tech options we are ruling out (at least 1 or 2) and one on the very light weight side that we are also ruling out.
- Alternatives
- Light-credit card or permit example (Tuna? where there is no ID proofing currently)
- NPS-username password
- EAuthentication
- We do need to consider the digital divide.
- The people who are approving (CIO, CG, CGEL, etc) will be looking at this for the first time.
- We need to figure out who is important to engage in with this process.
- We should have at least 2 very different environments.
- Permits, Log Books, Dealer Reports/Fish Tickets.
- Different solutions for trusted relationships and un-trusted relationships.
- There is a lot of regional variability.
- The alternatives are both technology and business process
- Risk Assessment and Cost Benefit Analysis
- We will need a lot of help is this section from the larger group.
- Implementation Plan
- This will be the next steps document
- This will be the next steps document
- Stakeholder Grid and the Wiki Overview
- Link to the Stakeholder Grid
- Roles and Responsibilities - See slides.
- RACI - See slides.
- Wiki Overview
- Link to the Wiki Homepage and How to Use Our Wiki
- If you need a username and password, just get in touch with Larry and he can set one up for you.
- Next Steps
22%
Action Items
- Concluding Thoughts
- What is the timeline on Susan's plan being approved?
- ASAP - within the next two weeks.
- Larry -
- This is a great group
- I'm "jazzed" about where we are and I think we can make it happen.
- It helps to have people with concrete experience.
- Thank you to everyone.
- What is the timeline on Susan's plan being approved?
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Other information From the Meeting:
- Link to more information about the Pike's Place FISH Market Video:
- Each member of the group introduced themselves with the following questions:
- What is my organization?
- Where did you grow up and where do you live now?
- What is my stake in the process?
- How did I come to be a member of this group?
- What is my time commitment to this group?
- What is my expertise and/or experience?
- How do I like to work?
- What is the best stereotype/archetype that describes me or "my kind"?