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microid - Re: [Microid] problem statement?

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  • From: Fred Stutzman <fred AT metalab.unc.edu>
  • To: Peter Saint-Andre <stpeter AT jabber.org>
  • Cc: "microid AT lists.ibiblio.org" <microid AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Microid] problem statement?
  • Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 15:22:16 -0500 (EST)

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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