VC Overview document - proposal

Dear all,

On the meeting of the 24th of April[1], we were discussing the Data Model PR #1476[2] and Use Case document PR #154[3]. The issue was the fate of the lifecycle section in the VCDM document; since then, [2] has been merged (meaning removing the section from the VCDM spec) but [3] (i.e., adding it to the Use Cases document) is still open. It is unclear whether that section really fits there.

As an alternative, I raised the idea of creating a separate "VC Overview" document (as a prospective WG Note) which may be a good place for the section. I have the feeling that having such an Overview would be a good thing anyway.

To put my keyboard where my mouth is, I have decided to work on such an Overview. Here is what I came up with:

  https://iherman.github.io/vc-overview/

It shamelessly copy-pastes many texts from the core specifications, but I think that is all right. (Hence the list of active participants of the other specifications as an authors' list; I hope I have not forgotten anyone.) It has been written using my own, Franco-Hungarian dialect of English, so the text probably needs some linguistic/stylistic care. I also must admit that I had difficulties to properly formulating a one-two paragraph overview of BBS and SD-JWT, because I am not familiar with the details (and the specifications do not really help); I would welcome some additional help on those sections. But I believe there is a proper "story" that can be shown to outsiders of the group, which was my primary goal.

At this point, I would like to propose this document as a work item for the group, which means in practice to move the repository over to W3C land with the goal of, eventually, publishing it as a WG Note (or Draft Note if that sounds better). I would then welcome comments and PR-s.

The lifecycle section, discussed in [2] and [3], has been added to the document as an appendix for now. It has not changed, apart from the editorial style, to make it in line with the rest. If we agree with moving this document forward, then I indeed believe this is a better place for the document than the use cases one; i.e., working on this document might supersede [3].

(Note that I anticipated the Controller Document in the mix, and that means some links are currently dangling.)

WDYT?

Cheers

Ivan

[1] https://www.w3.org/2017/vc/WG/Meetings/Minutes/2024-04-24-vcwg#section5-2
[2] https://github.com/w3c/vc-data-model/pull/1476
[3] https://github.com/w3c/vc-use-cases/pull/154

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Ivan Herman, W3C 
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