[Microid] problem statement?
Fred Stutzman
fred at metalab.unc.edu
Thu Jan 18 15:22:16 EST 2007
MicroID is a simple, extensible way for third parties to verify sameness
between two web-based resources. For example, Sarah may have accounts on
site A and B. With MicroID implemented on sites A and B, these sites can
verify sameness between A and B, establishing a useful identity link. Of
course, the communication identifiers must be verified in both A and B,
though this is common practice for websites.
The reason for the crypotographic hashing is twofold. First, it provides
reasonable protection against the scraping of communication identifiers by
spammers. Second, it allows the MicroID to contain more than one hashed
element (in this case the communication URI and the claimed URL). This
allows extensibility as the protocol scales to accept new forms of
communication URI's or URL. That is, by using the hash, the MicroID
maintains simplicity and affords great scalability.
Does this make sense?
On Thu, 18 Jan 2007, Peter Saint-Andre wrote:
> Someone emailed me yesterday as follow:
>
> ******
>
> What is the problem statement for microid? The site itself doesn't
> explain why the owner of the content cannot simply publish their
> communication uri in the content itself.
>
> I can reverse-engineer a problem statement, but much better for
> microid to explicitly say "$THIS is the problem, and microid is a
> solution."
>
> ******
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Peter
>
>
--
Fred Stutzman
claimID.com
919-260-8508
AIM: chimprawk
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