Re: PGP aside

On 30 Dec 2011, at 15:22, Peter Williams wrote:

> I dont really see semweb as "designing" anything. I see it as describing whats already there.

Yes — and so I see that it's valuable to be able to describe completely ad-hoc networks (i.e., via self-assertion using FOAF or similar), or slightly more encapsulated networks (such as PGP WoT), or more self-contained ones (Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.) in a unified fashion -- and by the same token, relate back from an network-specific identifier (which in WebID's case is your URI, in PGP's your key, on others your user ID, etc.) back to those unified descriptions, so linked data can act as a universal bridge, or “social babel fish”, if you like.

It’s not magical or especially clever, but as not many people have sat and thought practically about how to do it with the tools we have to hand, some thought experiments and sketches hurt little…

M.

-- 
Mo McRoberts - Technical Lead - The Space,
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Received on Saturday, 31 December 2011 00:28:20 UTC