Re: EXTERNAL: How to contribute to new standards work? (was:Re: RDF Dataset Canonicalization - Formal Proof)

Steve,

I'd suggest taking a look at this[1] which describes the process for "proposing a work item", which is basically a way to get things going within the CCG. Here's another helpful link[2] which outlines how to go about writing a re-spec document as well which is the format used within the W3C CCG. If you want to start by documenting things in a google doc or markdown doc first, then you can use those as well to propose the work item and during the process of the work report being finalized, you can convert the document format over.

-Kyle

[1]: https://w3c-ccg.github.io/propose_work_item.html
[2]: https://w3c-ccg.github.io/specs.html

________________________________
From: steve capell <steve.capell@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2021 10:40 PM
To: Christopher Allen <ChristopherA@lifewithalacrity.com>
Cc: Adrian Gropper <agropper@healthurl.com>; Alan Karp <alanhkarp@gmail.com>; Drummond Reed <drummond.reed@evernym.com>; Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com>; W3C Credentials CG (Public List) <public-credentials@w3.org>
Subject: EXTERNAL: How to contribute to new standards work? (was:Re: RDF Dataset Canonicalization - Formal Proof)

Dear community members (and leadership)

I'm resurrecting this thread because there was some interest in the standardisation of the simple merkel tree of salted hashes approach to selective redaction.

<<Christopher Allen said: There was an attempt to spec one here in the CCG three-four years ago, but it died on the vine.>>

Manu also correctly pointed out (although I cant seem to find the message) that it's all well and good to point at open source implementations - but without an open standard it is much less likely that there will be interoperable implementations.  very good point manu.

There was another thread a while back about decentralised rendering (so that the issuer can publish templates to help verifiers present VCs in a human readable form).  That's also something that the Singapore open attestation tools do. And also something that attracted some interest in this community.  But also something that would attract the same criticism about being published as an open standard.

Anyhow - to cut a long storey short, I believe there is now a strong interest to actually document the selective redaction and decentralised rendering methods as open standards. The obvious place to contribute that work to seems to the W3C and this working group in particular.

Problem is I'm just a loiterer / eavesdropper on this list and I really don't know how/where to start with proposing standards and offering initial contributions.

Does anyone have any advice?


On Sun, 28 Mar 2021 at 13:47, Christopher Allen <ChristopherA@lifewithalacrity.com<mailto:ChristopherA@lifewithalacrity.com>> wrote:
On Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 7:22 PM Steve Capell <steve.capell@gmail.com<mailto:steve.capell@gmail.com>> wrote:
The Singapore government https://www.openattestation.com/ does this already . Version 3 is W3C VC data model compliant

Each element is hashed (with salt I think) and then the hash of the hashed is the document hash that is notarised

The main rationale is selective redaction (because the root hash is unchanged when some clear text is hidden). But I suppose it simplifies canonicalisation too...

I’m a big fan of this approach, a form of redaction distinct from zk forms of selective disclosure.

There was an attempt to spec one here in the CCG three-four years ago, but it died on the vine.

I’d be interested is seeing this spec & implementation. Any links?

— Christopher Allen [via iPhone]


--
Steve Capell