OpenSSL Communities
Tue 15 Jul 2025 4:53PM

July 2025 meeting minutes (Foundation TAC)

JE Jon Ericson Public Seen by 7

Jul 10, 2025 | Monthly Foundation TAC

Attendees: Aditya Koranga, Dmitry Belyavsky, Barry Fussell, Igor Ustinov, Nicola Tuveri, Matt Caswell, Tomas Mraz, Richard Levitte, Jon Ericson


Carrying forward from the kickoff meeting:

  • Conference program committee

    • Tomas updated that there will be a presentation about how to review the proposed presentation

    • Matt mentioned that there are about a 100 99 proposals

    • Nicola asked about number of reviews everyone should look at and potential conflict of interest policies.

    • Tomas said we’d like everyone to review everything but the time is short

    • Nicola suggested dividing the talks up so that there is even coverage and reviews aren’t all of the “interesting” proposals

    • Igor pointed out that the form for collecting proposals is still active and Tomas replied this is intentional.

  • OTC-hold label alternative

    • A prerequisite would be opening a general discussion on the community platform (Nicola and Jon)

      • Individuals  aren’t necessarily interested in FIPS providers, for instance. That would mean a lot of work to educate people on the people who are deeply involved already. (Igor)

      • We need a way to bring in the people who care together to have a discussion. (Matt)

      • It should be possible to know about discussions and decide whether they are interested. (Tomas)

      • Voting can help with especially contentious issues. (Tomas)

      • Common issue in the Linux Foundation too. Issues start with the specific group and later elevated to the TAC and board, if necessary. (Aditya)

      • Some issues could be solved with a vote, but that might not be the right answer for other issues. (Richard and Matt)

      • We don’t want the TAC to be a self-sufficient group. The TAC represents their community and should take issues to their community. (Richard)

      • Basic plan: starting in the community and elevated to the BAC/TAC and finally the directors, if necessary.

  • Face-to-face meeting plans

    • Week before the conference? (Matt)

    • The corporation will have a F2F in Brno the week before. October 2-3 tentatively. (Nicola)

    • Barry, Aditya, Nicola and Dmitry will attend the conference.

    • Conference prep on Monday the 6th, but we can carve out a couple of hours.  

New items:

AOB

  • PQC poll and what are other groups doing with it at the moment. (Adyitya)

    • Cisco is rolling out with liboqs and 3.5 into their fork soon. (Barry)

    • NIcola’s contacts are mostly in the PQC camp. Regulations are driving interest. European regulations to do an inventory by 2026.

    • Matt noticed some people in the poll were waiting for quantum computers are actually functional, which is a concern given harvest now/decrypt later.

    • Education is necessary (Adyitya)

    • It's good we aren’t in a panic situation right now. Hybrid KEM is safe and doesn’t make things worse. Quantum computers might never happen, but it’s still worth doing. (Tomas)

    • Giving narrow context in talks, etc. (tailored for small business, for instance) might reach more people. (Nicola)

    • Potential talk title: “PQC for Me: I’m not Oracle—why should I care?” (Tomas)

  • Interactive presentation at the conference about the BACs/TACs. (Nicola)

    • Once again, we need a way to broadcast this sort of discussion.

    • Panel discussion (Tomas)

    • Interactive and not the Nicola show (Nicola)

    • Yes, let the audience ask questions basically all the time, if possible. (Tomas)

Action items

  • Set up the general discussion channel (Jon with Anton)

  • Write up the escalation process (Jon)

  • Solidify F2F plans (Jon/Matt)