[rdfweb-dev] Which Person wrote this FOAF?

[Edd Dumbill]

On Tue, 2003-07-29 at 11:53, Dan Brickley wrote:
> I'm wondering how this will turn out for tool-assisted FOAF publication.
> For example, Ecademy and TypePad generate FOAF on behalf of the person
> described. Firstly, are we happy with the use of foaf:maker as a way
> for such FOAF to assert that it is 'from' the person it describes. (I
> am); secondly, it is reasonable to expect such services will ever 
> find a way to allow their users to PGP-sign this content (I'm
> doubtful).

On the first point, construing foaf:maker to indicate the person from
whom the data originates seems the only reasonable solution.  Otherwise,
where do you stop?  I mean, I used 'vi' on Debian GNU/Linux to make my
FOAF file.  Oh, and the computer was a Dell with serial number
8723478936, etc, etc.

On the second point, software agents will have to take a view on how
much they trust information from certain third parties.  In writing
FOAFbot, for instance, I'd be happy to treat Ecademy FOAF files as
signed by their authors.

The construction of the general infrastructure for supporting third
party assurances is beyond my ken right now, something finer minds than
mine have worked on and are working on.  I guess we'll figure out how to
filter down their work into something that practically works for FOAF
tools.  It may be that SAML is a place we could go hunting for clues.

-- Edd