Re: DEFcon

On July 3, 2015 12:58:51 pm PDT, "Manu Sporny" 
<msporny@digitalbazaar.com> wrote:
> On 06/30/2015 04:21 PM, Brent Shambaugh wrote:
>> I know you all know a lot, but it bothers me that the people doing 
>> the work tend to be the same people and it is small in number.
>
> It's a problem of time and funding, not interest.
>
> Many of us are not going because we're really busy and it costs a lot of
> time and money to go to those sorts of things. That time, at least right
> now, is better spent building prototypes and writing specs.

It is interesting you say this. If I may elaborate.

I spent too many weeks on mailing lists arguing about anything and 
everything that can be evaluated by critically competing 
implementations as is the proper way in software evaluation in a matter 
of days!

I started two years ago by abandoning most of my prior libraries for 
now (which I now see as overly structured yet holding some real gems) 
and started from scratch in building a prototype that fits my needs 
TODAY based on simple logic principles. I brought this prototype to 
completion in about 8 months to a point where it can run something.

Earlier this year I started from scratch again in building a new 
prototype by adding a cryptographic overlay and this time added the 
capability to solidify interfaces with specs to start adapting the 
prototype to the current market. I am using older libraries I wrote and 
shimming them to orchestrate current specs and the system hides this as 
its most important to solidify the key W3C and other specs while 
testing them within larger systems to ensure we can tweak all knobs.

I am happy to report that this time around it took me around 4 months 
to re-build the system with the added abstractions and more and I feel 
like I now understand what I am doing as I was able to accommodate 
everything I needed pretty much without breaking my flow of 
implementation of the system!

Now that the core is working with specs that are inevitable I can start 
releasing it to a wider community that can help refine each aspect by 
applying the latest scrutiny.

Instead of actively participating or writing code to address certain 
aspects I have been modelling them in my head to ensure they will 
ultimately work out. This exercise has led me to yours (Manu) and 
other's work and I know that I will be able to with minimal 
implementation overlay the credentials and other APIs over the general 
logic framework I already have.

So I put practical implementation before specification and publication 
for over a decade to arrive at a foundation that will stand the test of 
time. I look forward to presenting what is possible using the semantic 
web and believe all the pieces are there to make it work today from all 
important standpoints.

It is PURELY a matter of adoption from now on and you MUST accompany 
specifications WITH implementations if you want to truly illustrate 
what you are trying to achieve and get people on board exponentially.

Christoph

Received on Saturday, 4 July 2015 03:43:44 UTC