NMFS E-Signature Project Activities for August and September 2008

August and September have been productive months for the e-signature project.

We described and characterized a wide spectrum of alternative e-signature approaches. Based on our requirements some of the alternatives were immediately eliminated from further consideration, and we eventually chose to proceed to the next step with three alternatives which were representative of the remaining range of approaches.  We met on September 3 and conducted an Alternatives Analysis, comparing these three representative e-signature approaches and ranking those approaches according to weighted evaluation criteria.  Results are documented in this report. 

We next began describing potential e-signature Pilot Candidates.   We met September 17 to discuss the pilot candidates.  We are currently in the process of incorporating feedback from the September 17 meeting, and we will be meeting October 1 to evaluate the pilot projects and complete the risk assessment of each pilot.

Our Proposed Meeting Schedule is now one week behind our initial plan, but we continue to make steady progress and a week's delay won't have any significant consequences.

One aspect of our Stakeholder Communication Plan is to publish and distribute periodic summaries of project activities, and this document is the second of those summaries.