[foaf-protocols] WebFinger

[Danny Ayers]

2009/8/15 Richard Cyganiak <richard at cyganiak.de>:
> Danny,
>
> On 15 Aug 2009, at 11:02, Danny Ayers wrote:
>>
>> Interesting, and with some support from Google -
>> [[
>> WebFinger, aka Personal Web Discovery.
>>
>> i.e. We're bringing back the finger protocol, but using HTTP this time.
>> ]]
>> http://code.google.com/p/webfinger/
>>
>> Seems like it would be isomorphic to a SPARQL query like:
>>
>>  @prefix : <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
>>
>>  SELECT ?profile WHERE {
>>
>>     ?person :mbox "mailto:joe.lambda at example.com" .
>>     ?profile a :PersonalProfileDocument ;
>>              :primaryTopic ?person .
>>  }
>
> This is not quite isomorphic. Using this approach, there is nothing that
> stops anyone from associating http://evil-site.com/ with
> danny.ayers at gmail.com.
>
> In the WebFinger proposal, only the admin of gmail.com gets to make the
> association (but can delegate the power via an appropriate system). So it's
> not easily gamed.
>
> I think that's crucial to making the system worthwhile.

Fair point. But given that IDs/profiles are crucial info (we need them
somehow), might it not be possible to put foaf+ssl in the loop for
3rd-party hosts to make it distributed?

-- 
http://danny.ayers.name