Re: FOAF Editor - was Re: WebID Frustration

On 8/7/13 7:08 AM, Hugh Glaser wrote:
> Norman, hello.
> Very interesting.
> Yes, I think that works.
> I think I had got mislead into thinking the issuer was significant - especially as the one I created calls itself "Key from my-profile.eu", but of course I could change that in keychain.
> I was sort of thinking of a FOAF service, which also just happens to do WebID if you click the WebID button (on by default, since people don't even need to know what it is?).
> So, essentially the next generation of foaf-a-matic.

Yes!

> I'm sure I remember talking about this stuff many years ago :-), but maybe WebID makes it even more useful.

It just continues the pursuit based on the current state of affairs re. 
Linked Data tools and infrastructure.

>
> In some sense this is a way to get WebID more widely adopted - be in a symbiotic relationship with FOAF.

Yes, but we don't even need the letters "FOAF" at the front door we just 
create and share ACL protected profile documents comprised of Linked 
Data (based on terms from the FOAF vocabulary).
> Because it also gets FOAF more widely adopted because it does the ID thing.

Yes.

> I'm guessing the WebID people have had all these discussions.

Naturally.

>
> So the service would create and edit a Personal Profile Document for users.

I would say: show everyone that anyone can make their own profile 
document which becomes yet another cluster within the Linked Open Data 
cloud. Of course, this could also happen within a corporate intranet or 
hybrid extranet.

> It would look after it itself if you wanted, GET and PUT it on a third party if desired and possible, or give you the edited version to put somewhere yourself.

Yes.
>
> Personally I would love to have something better than vi to edit my FOAF, much as I love it :-)

It now exists :-)


Kingsley
>
> Best
> Hugh
>
> On 6 Aug 2013, at 23:26, Norman Gray <norman@astro.gla.ac.uk>
>   wrote:
>
>> Hugh, hello.
>>
>> On 2013 Aug 6, at 22:58, Hugh Glaser <hg@ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:
>>
>> [...and quoting out of order...]
>>
>>> I looked a quite a few sites before choosing where my OpenID would be.
>> So did I, but OpenID allows for some indirection, so that the OpenID that I quote -- <http://nxg.me.uk/norman/openid> -- isn't committed to a particular OpenID provider.  I use versignlabs.com, but could change away from them without disruption.
>>
>> This is relevant because...
>>
>>> Actually, this whole thing seems to me (I now realise) nothing to do with WedID per se.
>>> It is about creating and editing FOAF files.
>> Aha, yes!  This is the key thing, I think.
>>
>> So the question of how to get a WebID may reduce to the question of how to get a certificate which includes a 'good' X.509 Subject Alternative Name, with 'good' here meaning something like 'the FOAF file I (apparently or to my surprise) already have'.
>>
>> Now, while there's a very small number who might want to do the whole thing from scratch, there's a larger number of people who might already have a FOAF file somewhere, and a still larger number of people (possibly all of Facebook? -- did they ever actually do this?) who have a FOAF profile but don't know it by that name.
>>
>> As in...
>>
>>> But actually I didn't; what I wanted was a WebID that didn't create an account somewhere (most of the sites I found offer an account that comes with a WebID as a side-effect).
>> So you want the inverse of this, in some loose sense.
>>
>> What probably would work in this case is a service which allows two steps:
>>
>>   1. You can say: I've got a preexisting account at Network X; can you give me a WebID which will point to that?
>>
>>   2. The service says:  yes, they do FOAF, so (a) here's a WebID certificate which points to that, for you to put in your browser, and (b) tell Network X to do ... blah.
>>
>> Step 1 is probably not toooo hard (especially if people can say "I've got this FNOF profile thing I've been told you tell you about").
>>
>> Step 2a is still going to be fiddly (X.509 + browser = baldness), but I imagine that it's the 'blah' in step 2b that will require network by network cooperation.  Though all it would require is for the user to upload their new WebID certificate to the cooperating service for it to work out what the WebID is that it should add to the preexisting user's FOAF profile.
>>
>> So you choose which network gets to edit and serve your FOAF file for you, and only have to mention that on one occasion, when talking to a make-me-a-WebID service.  You'd never have to go back to that WebID-creating service again.  In other words, unlike OpenID, you don't even need a redirection step.
>>
>> Does that work?
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Norman
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Norman Gray  :  http://nxg.me.uk
>> SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, UK
>>
>
>
>


-- 

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