Circumstances under which profiles are used or shared

[csarven]

WebID identifies one within the space of social, conceptual, and contextual relations.

Where possible, the Solid WebID Profile specification should aim to provide recommendations; clarify and open the space for recommendations to be developed; waypoint to existing documentation; or include considerations for circumstances under which profiles are used or shared, e.g.:

• Communication and use of multiple profiles for different purposes.
• Connectivity of multiple profiles and cross-context recognition.
• Cascade of profile information.
• Persistence and evolution of profiles.
• Anonymous and pseudonymous profiles.
• Self-controlled and third-party-controlled identities.
• Information for the purpose of verification, authentication, authorization purposes.
• Compilation of preferences, choices, activities and interactions of an agent.
• Social graph for different kinds of relationships between agents.
• Factors specific to physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, social, or behavioural identity.

[jeff-zucker]

As I understand it, I am writing the introduction covering some of these topics in a general way and @VirginiaBalseiro is writing the actual use cases. I'm almost done with a draft of a revised intro taking many of @csarven's excellent points into consideration as well as trying to do more of what @timea-solid has mentioned repeatedly - providing an overview for developers that helps them find the parts of this document they need to and explains why they might need the various parts of it.

[jeff-zucker]

@csarven could you clarify what you mean by "Cascade of profile information" and
"Persistence and evolution of profiles"? Thanks!

[csarven]

As mentioned above and meeting, it is the kind of information that needs to be massaged throughout the specification, and not only an overview about it in a specific section (like the introduction). There is a high overlap between the use cases and the considerations above, so I suggest covering it in varying ways.

[jeff-zucker]

Agreed. I meant only that the intro and the use cases are current action items. We will also need to revise other sections later.

[jeff-zucker]

And my understanding of the split in work between Virginia and I may be wrong. @VirginiaBalseiro if you would prefer to take ownership of the introduction, I'll just pass you my notes and let you proceed.

[VirginiaBalseiro]

@jeff-zucker No, but perhaps it might be useful to finalize the use cases and scenarios before including them in the intro., just to prevent unnecessary work/efforts duplication.

[jeff-zucker]

Okay, great, I will consider only the writing the intro part as the part of this issue assigned to me. And of course it will only be a draft with expected changes from you and others.

I had thought that the use cases would have a separate section of their own and that the intro would be much more general and refer to that section. Do you see the use-cases as actually being part of the intro? If so, fine, but I would think that you will need a greater level of detail about how the whole profile is set up before getting into use cases so I would see it as towards the end of the spec. If you disagree, please let me know, I'll work around whatever way you want to do it.

Agreed - we'll definitely need to check that the two sections (if we end up with two) are in sync before finalizing.

[VirginiaBalseiro]

I think use cases should be either its own section or a separate document, but we can decide when we have a text. I will PR to /notes (most likely) soon, and we can take it from there.

[jeff-zucker]

Okay, sounds like we're on the same page there. I'll also PR mine (I guess to notes) soon and we can work out kinks from there.