Re: Should WebIDs denote people or accounts?

On 5/18/14 4:31 PM, Sandro Hawke wrote:
> On 05/18/2014 01:59 PM, Nathan Rixham wrote:
>> I'd suggest that this is not a technical problem and cannot be 
>> addressed this way.
>>
>> When you add reasoners in to the mix they can quickly determine that 
>> typographically different (personas/agents/uris) refer to the same 
>> thing, whatever approach is used.
>
> Not true.   They might quickly determine that two personas are managed 
> by the same person, but that is not the same as determining that the 
> two personas are the same thing.
Only if you provide the information that makes that feasible.

>
> Computers are perfectly capable of keeping track of my having multiple 
> distinct mailing addresses, multiple distinct phone computers, 
> multiple distinct phone numbers, etc.   They know they belong to the 
> same person, without getting confused and thinking actually each of my 
> mailing addresses is the same or each of my android devices is the 
> same.   If they did, I couldn't exactly label one as being home and 
> one as being office, or install some apps on one android device and 
> not on another.
>
> This is not hard to solve - we just have to be clear that what's being 
> authenticated and authorized is a persona/account, not a human.

And why do you believe that:

1. WebID isn't clear about being an Identifier that denotes an Agent?

2. That WebID-Profile Documents aren't RDF documents that describe the 
referents of WebIDs (i.e, they are Identity Cards) ?

3. That WebID-TLS isn't about authenticating the claims in the 
WebID-Profile document ?

>
> Unfortunately, this doesn't match WebID's self-conception, so far.
Only if you are conflating WebID [1], WebID-Profile [2], and WebID-TLS 
[3], which is still a general problem we have with the term: WebID.

WebID is simply an identifier that denotes an Agent. WebID-Profile is a 
profile document that describes what a WebID denotes.
WebID-TLS is an authentication protocol that verifies the claims made in 
a WebID-Profile document or Identity Card.

Could it be that you are indicating to the spec editors that some 
organizational issues exists re., layout and overall presentation? if 
that's your concern, then I can certainly see where you might be coming 
from etc..

Links:

[1] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/webid/spec/identity/#the-webid-http-uri
[2] 
http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/webid/spec/identity/#publishing-the-webid-profile-document
[3] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/webid/spec/tls/

>
>       -- Sandro


-- 

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Kingsley Idehen 
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