- From: Joseph M. Reagle Jr. <reagle@w3.org>
- Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 16:32:31 -0500
- To: "Prince, Adam" <adam.prince@scala.se>
- Cc: w3c-ietf-xmldsig@w3.org
At 11:45 99/11/25 +0100, Prince, Adam wrote:
>The issue I foresee and am trying to identify how it should be solved is:
if
>I know that future generations of a document will be created and wish to
sign
>a reference to the future (as yet uncreated) generations how can I have
>application independent support for this?.
Adam,
The W3C has issued the Resource Description Framework (RDF) [1] for this
very purpose. There are numerous application specific schema's and semantics
using XML syntax. RDF defines a data model and XML syntax for describing a
portion of interoperable application semantics that will be common to many
data applications. The semantics RDF focusses on are the relationships
between resources.
>The clearest example of this I can think of is a digitally signed
employment
>contract that states the employee must comply with the current employee
>handbook that is always maintained at
>..../intranet/HR/current-employee-handbook.htm. Since this is a legal
>contract some form of non-repudiation may be required.
The RDF syntax ' rdf:about="http://mypage.com"' is an assertion about a
resource (and not necessarily it's content at any moment.)
Consequently you could have an XML/RDF application like the following, and
sign that:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rdf:RDF
xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:s="http://scala.se/schema/employee-policies">
<rdf:Description
about="scala.se/intranet/HR/current-employee-handbook.htm">
<s:Must><s:Read>All</s:Read></s:Must>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/
_________________________________________________________
Joseph Reagle Jr.
Policy Analyst mailto:reagle@w3.org
XML-Signature Co-Chair http://www.w3.org/People/Reagle/
Received on Monday, 29 November 1999 16:33:02 UTC