<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">You know something, "James A Michener" once said "All men above forty are stupid". Let me admit that I turned 50 in the month of march 2010.<div>
<br></div><div>How old are you "Phillip Hallam-Baker"?</div></span><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 9:58 PM, Phillip Hallam-Baker <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:hallam@gmail.com">hallam@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">To me the reason the problem goes beyond simply authentication +<br>
attributes is that we are providing a resolution mechanism for Web<br>
'principals' identified through consistent, machine readable, human<br>
friendly identifiers.<br>
<br>
So 'Phillip Hallam-Baker' is not a useful identifier in this case as<br>
even though this example is unique, the class of identifiers it is a<br>
member of are not unique and thus not useful as machine readable<br>
identifiers. Contrawise any identifier of the form '=292rj239e!' might<br>
be machine readable in the right circumstances but certainly isn't<br>
human friendly.<br>
<br>
<br>
A principal here is most often going to be a Web User but could in<br>
certain circumstances be a computer process or agent running on a<br>
machine or could be some abstract corporate entity.<br>
<br>
A principal may be an individual or may be an individual acting in a<br>
specific role. So <a href="mailto:fred@gmail.com">fred@gmail.com</a> and <a href="mailto:fred@google.com">fred@google.com</a> might be the<br>
exact same person but respond differently due to the fact that in one<br>
role he may be acting in a corporate capacity.<br>
<br>
A principal might even by a physical location such as a building.<br>
malden#<a href="http://friendlies.com" target="_blank">friendlies.com</a> might be the Friendlies restaurant at Malden.<br>
<br>
<br>
A resolution of a principal may mean:<br>
<br>
* Authenticating an interaction with the principal<br>
* An email message<br>
* A log in attempt<br>
* A permission that has been granted by Principal A to Principal B<br>
* Initiating an interaction with the principal<br>
* An email message<br>
* An instant message<br>
* Making a reference to the principal<br>
* Asserting that the principal initiated a communication<br>
* Asserting that the principal has a property<br>
* Asserting that principal A is the source of assertion B<br>
concerning principal C<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 11:48 AM, SitG Admin<br>
<<a href="mailto:sysadmin@shadowsinthegarden.com">sysadmin@shadowsinthegarden.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>> My view is that we should stop talking about 'identity' all together.<br>
>> We should instead define the range of problems we want to solve as use<br>
>> cases and go solve them. Identity is too much of an abstraction, it<br>
>> can stand for anything.<br>
><br>
> +1 to targeting problems rather than ideals (at that layer).<br>
><br>
> The abstraction (of identity) is this community's strength and weakness; it<br>
> names the Purpose that brings everyone together, and it calls in people from<br>
> all over who may be able to contribute something. This concentration of<br>
> diverse ideas, though, doesn't create a single harmonious overlap of equally<br>
> distributed strength; there are outliers, ideas that aren't shared much by<br>
> others here. The two are opposite sides of the same coin.<br>
><br>
> To restate this in a slightly different way, it's a popularity contest: none<br>
> of us can decide what idea will see the most adoption, since none of us can<br>
> make those decisions for everyone else. Nearly any idea is probably going to<br>
> be seen as a bad one by *some* person in the group (Santosh helps make<br>
> statistics come *true*!), and we should each be prepared to occasionally<br>
> bite the bullet and accept that it's *our* turn to be left out in the cold.<br>
> (Then leave our unpopular ideas behind and come in for a warm meal and<br>
> whatever work has got so many members of the community in the commons<br>
> house.)<br>
><br>
> -Shade<br>
><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</div></div><font color="#888888">--<br>
Website: <a href="http://hallambaker.com/" target="_blank">http://hallambaker.com/</a><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><a href="http://hi.im/santosh">http://hi.im/santosh</a><br><br><br>