Re: [Auth]Re: IDsec specification draft

[David Sugar]

Actually I think I should elaborate further on IDsec.  Having had the 
oppertunity to visit Hans while I was travelling in the Netherlands the 
end of last month, I already have a good general knowedge of how IDsec 
works and it's intent.  I think everyone in the auth list should, 
perhaps, after the holidays, take the time to take a closer look over 
this spec.

IDsec has a workable implimentation of identity services.  There already 
is functional a reference implimentation which will be made available as 
free software.  While certainly not perfect, it does meet and hence 
explain how to impliment our stated goal of a fully distributed identity 
services that can operate at any level down to an individuals 
workstation if so desired, and thereby meets both or technical 
objectives for a correct functional solution as well as our ethical ones 
for preserving privacy of user data.

In a practical sense there are some issues in it to be resolved, but 
none overly large.  I also think some aspects of it may make it 
particularly desirable for commercial vendors to impliment.  This I 
think is also a good thing, for if we were to bring out an identity 
service, however useful it may be, it is important that commercial 
interests will want to impliment it, or even do so for motivations far 
different from ours; aligning commercial interests with ethical ones is 
very useful in this case.

There are a few potential drawbacks I perceive in the current 
implimentation, and I would like to talk about the strengths and 
weeknesses of IDsec more once people have had a chance to comprehend the 
spec.  Perhaps it would also help once the reference implimentation is 
actually made available and people get a chance to test and playing with 
it even in it's current form, and this last issue I actually direct back 
at Hans.

David

Hans Zandbelt wrote:

> Doesn't anyone have any comments on the draft spec that I
> sent 2 weeks ago? (or should I stop bothering...)
>
> Hans.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Hans Zandbelt                         address@hidden 
> Telematica Instituut                     http://www.telin.nl 
> P.O.Box 589, 7500 AN                   Phone: +31 53 4850445 
> Enschede, Netherlands                    Fax: +31 53 4850400 
>
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