Re: A Quick Note on WebID history - Re: All the Agents Challenge (ATAC) at ISWC 2021

On Sun, 25 Jul 2021 at 21:54, Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com>
wrote:

> Hi Melvin,
>
> On 7/25/21 6:17 AM, you wrote:
>
> I am very much in favor of Manu Sporny’s work, and am intending to use
>> it when it is finished. I have been building on Manu’s work on HTTP
>> signatures
>> here
>>
>> https://github.com/bblfish/authentication-panel/blob/main/proposals/HttpSignature.md#the-sequence-diagram
>>
>> I don’t think one needs to adopt the whole project to get somewhere:
>> luckily
>> as implementing all the 50+ did protocols would be a huge task in itself.
>>
>
> When I met with Manu I asked him if his work could be made compatible with
> WebID's preferred (and default) serialization, turtle.  His reply was that
> it's hard enough getting people to use JSON-LD
>
>
> Turtle vs JSON-LD leads to confusion. The bigger issue at hand suffers
> when those battles creep into broader discussion.
>
>
>
> I think he's right on that.  One of the biggest things holding webid back
> is forcing people to use turtle, and similarly with LDP.
>
>
> Yes, but parties on both sides are at fault re trying to impose a default
> document content-type for serialization and persistence of credentials.
>

The default document type of the web is html


> I continue to encourage the pursuit of verifiable identity solutions that
> aren't distracted by content-type conflicts.
>
> The ultimate beauty of RDF lies in its abstract nature i.e., it is
> fundamentally data representation format agnostic.
>

RDF does have a lot of baggage.  Forcing predicates as URIs, language tags,
bnodes, data types, content negotiation, XML format from 2002, SPARQL,
RDF*, difficulty with arrays, forcing everything to be a Set etc. etc.

Where one might see beauty, others might see complexity.  Even as an
abstract format, it is opinionated

>
> JSON-LD is good for engaging the so-called "Web Developer" due to the
> ubiquity of JSON. That developer-profile dominates the application
> development landscape in today's digital world.
>
>
>
> It's too much of a heavy-lift for the average developer and they'll choose
> JSON.  The name RDF is poison to web developers
>
>
> Correction:
>
> RDF (formaized EAV i.e., EAV plus formalized Identifiers in the form of
> IRIs) cannot be poison since Web Developers generally understand EAV and
> work with it courtesy of structured data delivered via JSON docs :)
>
>
>
> IMHO we need a JSON based version of WebID, perhaps an extension of
> schema.org, as a basis to create a modern read-write web
>
>
> You need a Resolvable Identifier (e.g., and HTTP IRI) that resolves to a
> variety of documents types. If the target audience is Web Developers,
> JSON-LD or pure JSON will suffice as the default.
>

Yes, JSON with URis.  Allow them to be referenced in a document.  Imported
to a quad store.  Embed in a web page.  Simpler, more powerful. Obvious,
really.


>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Kingsley Idehen 
> Founder & CEO
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>
>