On 7 Aug 2013, at 13:08, Hugh Glaser <h...@ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote: > Norman, hello. > Very interesting. > Yes, I think that works. > I think I had got mislead into thinking the issuer was significant - > especially as the one I created calls itself "Key from my-profile.eu", but of > course I could change that in keychain. > I was sort of thinking of a FOAF service, which also just happens to do WebID > if you click the WebID button (on by default, since people don't even need to > know what it is?). > So, essentially the next generation of foaf-a-matic. > I'm sure I remember talking about this stuff many years ago :-), but maybe > WebID makes it even more useful. > > In some sense this is a way to get WebID more widely adopted - be in a > symbiotic relationship with FOAF. > Because it also gets FOAF more widely adopted because it does the ID thing. > I'm guessing the WebID people have had all these discussions. > > So the service would create and edit a Personal Profile Document for users. > It would look after it itself if you wanted, GET and PUT it on a third party > if desired and possible, or give you the edited version to put somewhere > yourself. > > Personally I would love to have something better than vi to edit my FOAF, > much as I love it :-)
Hi, that is what Andrei is building with http://my-profile.eu/ and what I am building at http://stample.co/ ( see also http://github.com/stample ), and a number of others are building such as http://data.fm/ , etc... The idea is to have a web server that is as easy to use as well known social networks but that is distributed and secure. Henry > > Best > Hugh > > On 6 Aug 2013, at 23:26, Norman Gray <nor...@astro.gla.ac.uk> > wrote: > >> >> Hugh, hello. >> >> On 2013 Aug 6, at 22:58, Hugh Glaser <h...@ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote: >> >> [...and quoting out of order...] >> >>> I looked a quite a few sites before choosing where my OpenID would be. >> >> So did I, but OpenID allows for some indirection, so that the OpenID that I >> quote -- <http://nxg.me.uk/norman/openid> -- isn't committed to a particular >> OpenID provider. I use versignlabs.com, but could change away from them >> without disruption. >> >> This is relevant because... >> >>> Actually, this whole thing seems to me (I now realise) nothing to do with >>> WedID per se. >>> It is about creating and editing FOAF files. >> >> Aha, yes! This is the key thing, I think. >> >> So the question of how to get a WebID may reduce to the question of how to >> get a certificate which includes a 'good' X.509 Subject Alternative Name, >> with 'good' here meaning something like 'the FOAF file I (apparently or to >> my surprise) already have'. >> >> Now, while there's a very small number who might want to do the whole thing >> from scratch, there's a larger number of people who might already have a >> FOAF file somewhere, and a still larger number of people (possibly all of >> Facebook? -- did they ever actually do this?) who have a FOAF profile but >> don't know it by that name. >> >> As in... >> >>> But actually I didn't; what I wanted was a WebID that didn't create an >>> account somewhere (most of the sites I found offer an account that comes >>> with a WebID as a side-effect). >> >> So you want the inverse of this, in some loose sense. >> >> What probably would work in this case is a service which allows two steps: >> >> 1. You can say: I've got a preexisting account at Network X; can you give me >> a WebID which will point to that? >> >> 2. The service says: yes, they do FOAF, so (a) here's a WebID certificate >> which points to that, for you to put in your browser, and (b) tell Network X >> to do ... blah. >> >> Step 1 is probably not toooo hard (especially if people can say "I've got >> this FNOF profile thing I've been told you tell you about"). >> >> Step 2a is still going to be fiddly (X.509 + browser = baldness), but I >> imagine that it's the 'blah' in step 2b that will require network by network >> cooperation. Though all it would require is for the user to upload their >> new WebID certificate to the cooperating service for it to work out what the >> WebID is that it should add to the preexisting user's FOAF profile. >> >> So you choose which network gets to edit and serve your FOAF file for you, >> and only have to mention that on one occasion, when talking to a >> make-me-a-WebID service. You'd never have to go back to that WebID-creating >> service again. In other words, unlike OpenID, you don't even need a >> redirection step. >> >> Does that work? >> >> All the best, >> >> Norman >> >> >> -- >> Norman Gray : http://nxg.me.uk >> SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, UK >> > > Social Web Architect http://bblfish.net/
