Re: WebID default serialization for WebID 2.x

Quoting Nathan Rixham (2022-01-26 03:09:03)
> On Tue, Jan 25, 2022 at 11:59 PM Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > On 1/25/22 6:08 PM, Nathan Rixham wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, Jan 25, 2022 at 10:58 PM Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> On 1/25/22 4:29 PM, Nathan Rixham wrote:
> >>
> >> On Tue, Jan 25, 2022 at 9:23 PM Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> On 1/25/22 1:28 PM, Nathan Rixham wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Would a fair definition of a valid WebId then be something like: A URI
> >>> is a valid WebIdentifier if it dereferences to a valid WebId-Profile
> >>> describing the URI with the minimum set of required properties (type, name,
> >>> public_keys)?
> >>>
> >>> A WebID is a resolvable identifier that denotes an agent. It resolves to
> >>> a WebID Profile Document.
> >>>
> >>  How do you know it's a WebID before you resolve it?
> >>
> >> Good question!
> >>
> >> By deciding the want to denote yourself using a given identifier,
> >> relative to your profile document.
> >>
> > Let me rephrase, and suggest looking at it the other way around: given a
> > random IRI <y> how do I know <y> is a webid / refers to an Agent, without
> > first resolving it? and as a sub point, is a "valid" webid?
> >
> > You know it is a WebID because the spec says its is a URI that denotes an
> > Agent. That's it, really :)
> >
> > "
> > WebID A WebID is a URI with an HTTP or HTTPS scheme which denotes an
> > Agent (Person, Organization, Group, Device, etc.). For WebIDs with fragment
> > identifiers (e.g. #me), the URI without the fragment denotes the Profile
> > Document.
> >
> > "
> >
> I feel something is getting lost in translation.
> 
> There's no way to know this without doing something first, to implement
> anything in code it would need to be the opposite way around, "A URI is a
> WebID if...", there's no way for a system to know it's a WebID without
> further information, and the spec should define what that information is,
> and how to get it, the minimum needed to determine that a previously
> unknown uri <y> as a WebID via some mechanism.
> 
> "A WebID is a URI with.." doesn't actually help or provide any guidance or
> useful definition, indeed it's entirely impossible to get any further
> unless you know beforehand that `<y> an :Agent`, but you don't know this
> until after you've tried to resolve <y>  ..
> 
> Am I making sense here?

How do you know that https://example.org/ is a web address?

When you throw it at a web browser you test that it *works* as a web 
address, not if it *is* a web address.  If it fails to work then you 
have only really tested the web service, not the address.

You can check if I live at "Foobar street 45", but you cannot test if 
"Foobar street 45" *is* a (real or imaginary) street name.

Does that answer your question - or do you feel I am sidestepping and 
missing your point?

 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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