Re: Human readable credentials?

Right my examples assumed JSON as the container. We’re also interested in
the approach Leonard describes and we’re discussing these topics in the
vc-edu task force:
https://w3c-ccg.github.io/vc-ed/

On Mon, Jun 8, 2020 at 11:51 AM Leonard Rosenthol <lrosenth@adobe.com>
wrote:

> The assumption here is that the JSON representation is the “container” for
> all aspects of the credential.   I will put forth, as I did on the call
> today, that using a rich (open standard) container format such as PDF for
> the container would be a better solution when **both** PDF + JSON are
> required.
>
>
>
> PDF provides you a single *binary* container for both the
> human-consumable presentation + the JSON-LD (or XML, as we noted on the
> call today) for machine consumption.  All of which can be certified/sealed
> according to eIDAS standards (ie. PAdES) for compliance with relevant
> laws/regulations.  It’s also fully compatible with device & cloud-based
> search engines, to ensure that the content can/will be indexed.
>
>
>
> And this isn’t a new idea.  Governments such as the US, the EU and Brazil
> have been doing this for decades!   For example, each copy of the US Census
> from the US GPO is distributed as a certified PDF with the data embedded.
> So you can read it as a human, extract machine readable information – all
> while ensuring that the information has not been tampered with.
>
>
>
> Leonard
>
>
>
> *From: *Jeremy Townson <jeremy.townson@gmail.com>
> *Date: *Monday, June 8, 2020 at 12:48 PM
> *To: *"W3C Credentials CG (Public List)" <public-credentials@w3.org>
> *Subject: *Human readable credentials?
> *Resent-From: *<public-credentials@w3.org>
> *Resent-Date: *Monday, June 8, 2020 at 12:47 PM
>
>
>
> I have a question for the group about displaying credentials to humans.
> Credentials, being JSON, are machine readable, okay, but when the machine
> is told to display the credential on screen, what does the machine do?
>
>
>
> Does this matter? It would appear so.. A holder may wish to make a visual
> check of a credential he holds. An issuer may wish their credentials to
> display their logo, etc. In fact, one can imagine it being useful to
> display virtually any credential, except possibly login credentials and
> that kind of thing.
>
>
>
> Since credentials have emerged from linked data on the web, one idea would
> be to continue to do what the web does generally and have a web page render
> a credential. But the integrity of that web page and of the credential are
> guaranteed in different ways. How then would the view and the credential be
> tied to the same issuer?
>
>
>
> It seems you could address this question in two ways. One would be to
> embed the view data into the credential itself. For example, a credential
> could contain a field like "view": "*some mime message or whatever*".
> Another would be to use a content-addressable link, such as a hashlink,
> where the content contains the same info.
>
>
>
> The problem here is neither of those approaches are standard in the data
> model. Seemingly, it would be useful if they were standard because an
> arbitrary wallet, given an arbitrary credential would know how to display
> it.
>
>
>
> So finally, my question. What ways are people using to display
> credentials, are they robust and is there any best approach that might be
> worthy enough to standardise?
>
>
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Jeremy Townson
>
>
>
> ps: I've enjoyed watching the CG list file through my inbox. It seems a
> very coherent group, which hopefully gives as good a chance of success in
> this world.
>
>
>
> pps: To introduce myself, I have been working on a Scala implementation of
> the VC data model.
>
>
>
>
>