Re: Verifiable Claims Charter Proposal prepped for W3M

On 10/01/2016 04:39 AM, David Chadwick wrote:
> my immediate comment upon reading the new charter, is "why isn't a
> SAML assertion a verifiable claim?".

That's a valid concern. I'm concerned about the same sort of push-back.
I think we're covered because we now point to "charter motivations" in
the intro to the charter:

"""
Readers that are new to this work should examine the motivations that
led to this charter.
"""

Which points here:

http://w3c.github.io/webpayments-ig/VCTF/charter/charter-motivation.html

which outlines why using only SAML doesn't accomplish what motivated the
charter in the first place (see "Problem Statement" second bullet item).
There is also a gap analysis that demonstrates the shortcomings of SAML:

http://manu.sporny.org/2015/credentials-retrospective/#saml

So, we have a fairly detailed response for the "why isn't a SAML
assertion a verifiable claim?" question.

> When I read it with the SAML model in mind, it seems to me that it
> fits the charter, and hence many (particularly new) readers might
> argue that the work is not needed.

Based on a quick read of this:

http://manu.sporny.org/2015/credentials-retrospective/#saml

Do you still believe that to be true?

> Don't you think the charter ought to contain the definition for a 
> verifiable claim in order to make it crystal clear to the reader what
> we are talking about?

The charter does contain the definition of a "verifiable claim" here:

http://w3c.github.io/webpayments-ig/VCTF/charter/rc-3.html#terminology

However, that definition alone is not enough. One needs to understand
the greater ecosystem we're trying to build and we endeavor to point
people in that direction. It's true that a number of readers will not
follow the link or string everything together, but in those cases, we
can point to the reasons that they might object to the work.

-- manu

-- 
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
blog: Rebalancing How the Web is Built
http://manu.sporny.org/2016/rebalancing/

Received on Sunday, 2 October 2016 18:51:38 UTC