Re: Call for Participation: OASIS Identity Based Attestation and Open Exchange Protocol Specification (IBOPS) TC

 
On 9 Aug 2014, at 3:12 pm, Anders Rundgren <anders.rundgren.net@gmail.com> wrote:

> https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/tc-announce/201408/msg00001.html
> 
> Somewhat funny noting that folks from BankOfAmerica are involved.
> I haven't seen in any other of the myriad of activities I'm following including WebCrypto.
> 
> Anders
> 

a few thoughts… (IMHO of course..)

I’ve been tracking https://www.respectnetwork.com/ which i think may be related to this field of work - given some research around https://info.respectnetwork.com/launch-speakers/ (https://info.respectnetwork.com/  - etc.)

regardless - different people, different groups - working on solving common problems (in different ways) is good.

(mind, i’m not sure given requirements i believe to be underlying, assumptions of course - how the concept of ‘pick your =name’ mechanism could be truly decentralised? I’ve assumed that decentralised systems would use a URI structure that would mean - you don’t need to compete with others for an available name…) anyhow.  it’s got an ‘App store’ https://apps.respectnetwork.com/ and economics around it.

So - perhaps their related? not sure…  worth a look surely - much, much cleaner user (and investor) presentation than http://cimba.co/ http://data.fm/ or the various ‘test environments’ / POC’s we’ve produced - yet, i think also to solve that problem we also need to look at decentralised business models, which is more than the languages itself. 

in considering ‘trends’, which appear to be at the level of scope that the body of work we’re involved in many influence society into the future; i consider precedents, 

in the past:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta is a good precedent - from a different era - with a different format of problems, platforms, technologies, economic / financial ‘products’, terms of trade, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Clause is another good example of an effort that sought to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts”, alongside of course, the production of the US constitution itself, which in-turn i imagine relates to factors in relation to the ‘choice of law’ many subscribers to the largest WebSites subscribe to, across the world.

Then in more recent times https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiFIu_z4dM8 

http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx

Applied to web http://webtv.un.org/watch/tim-berners-lee-human-rights-day-2013-20-years-working-for-your-rights/2895794933001/  - something that happened, by an individual who used their capacity to consider opportunities in this area of “Web Science”. 

http://www.verisigninc.com/en_US/innovation/verisign-labs/speakers-series/evolution-of-internet/index.xhtml obviously too.

i keep listing them in https://twitter.com/webcivics related materials…   Yet, globally we’re having trouble making these sorts of concepts real, tangible, viable, trusted.  No simple fixes in-sight, but rather, a bunch of very dedicated people getting involved and looking at how to solve some real problems...

So, in a cathartic format - i’m very pleased with the progress of (and the opportunity to be involved with) the various W3 related scopes of work; and, believe the Credentials CG has enormous opportunities to provide further solutions, in a workable framework, that is seemingly quite innovative in nature and potentially enormously important for the future of web-info-systems, knowledge-economies, trade, etc.

https://www.w3.org/wiki/Webizen is another important element of this broader field of work…

Forming and nurturing public discourse is an important part of the dev, especially given the broad factors of influence, implication, ramifications, etc..  I imagine the results will have an array of alternatives; yet, i think they’ll also look quite different to the way the web works today - just as the way the web worked in the late-90’s (say, before macromedia flash (connected to DB’s)), so forming cooperative systems (a term Henry Story first introduced me to, in this type of context) is also important overall. 

Personally - I’ve experienced, in projects dating from 2000, the problem of centralisation vs. decentralisation.  Whilst the W3 (orientated) standards (works) now exist (dramatically decreasing the risk-factors relating to ‘golden handcuffs’, massive funnel effects, etc), we’re still in early days, the infacy period - of a web web want or the web we know - as it will be demonstrated to exist, in the future.  

To suggest this is simply discourse in relation to software-engineering would be, IMHO, over-simplication. Perhaps Web-Engineering does in-fact capture more of the implicit notions surrounding the work.  I guess overall, i hope the critical elements do not become too fragmented, in an environment where the scope of work is enormous and the resources available, are yet to reach critical mass.  Equally, in the interests of ‘risk management’ having systems producing alternatives with characteristically variants, is of course, good - balanced against the reality of the web we use today ONLY being made possible via the works of people, who made certain decisions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_2YWiaPJ6A 

In relation to banks getting involved in this field of work and related activities - i think that is a very good thing.   In-anycase, i’ll be reviewing https://www.w3.org/2014/strint/draft-iab-strint-report.html this week, hopefully writing up something i’ll share (probably over http://www.w3.org/community/credentials/ - which is a group i recommend all recipients join…)

TimH.