Re: "tag:" Identification Idea [was: Re: Proposal: 'tag' URIs]

> I'm confused by your proposal in that you seem to advocate
> an email exchange per _tag_. That's highly undesirable [...]

True, but I did note it. For namespaces, one could use www-uri-tag-ns
and just send an email with a blank subject, i.e. register everything
under tag://myemail@me.com;1-4-28/ as being under "my" control, the
person with the authority code that satisfies the W3C's mail server
(or whatever particular security system is used).

> [...] The problem is when a dispute arises: I mint
> tag:timothy@hpl.hp.com;1:blah (which, actually, I have the right
> to do) but someone else says they owned timothy@hpl.hp.com
> at that date. Whom can I appeal to?
>
> It seems to me that something like your idea could be made to
> work for settling that dispute (is this what you intended?):

Yes it is.

> [...] if I can satisfy www-uri-tag@w3.org that I possess v
> (which I can easily do), it can affirm my right to the authority.

That's the basic jist of it; there are many ways in which the security
aspect of this could be satisfied, but it seems to me that:-

1) Not all people own a domain, but it is incredibly easy to secure a
free email address
2) Hence, people will wish to use email addresses as tags, which they
are permitted to do so
3) It is very difficult to prove that you owned a certain email
address on a given date unless a) someone can testify at the server
side that this email address was delegated to you (which is rarely
ever possible in the case of free email servers), or b) a mail is sent
to some archived list controlled by a non-partial organization.
4) The W3C could act as a non-partial organization, it has both the
power to set up the mailing list, and hopefully the compuslsion to do
so
5) The mechanics of such a system could be made public so that others
may implement it also - this is not a centralized database, merely
something that one can cite as evidence if conflicts occur, and
possbily as a memory aid so that people can keep a track of which tags
they have already used up

It's just an idea :-)

--
Kindest Regards,
Sean B. Palmer
@prefix : <http://webns.net/roughterms/> .
:Sean :hasHomepage <http://purl.org/net/sbp/> .

Received on Saturday, 28 April 2001 16:17:01 UTC