XDI
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XDI (XRI Data Interchange) is a generalized, extensible service for sharing, linking, and synchronizing data over the Internet and other data networks using machine-readable structured documents that use an RDF vocabulary based on XRI structured identifiers. The XDI protocol is under development by the OASIS XDI Technical Committee.
The goal of XDI is to enable data from any data source to be identified, described, linked, and synchronized into an active, machine-readable dataweb just as content from any content source can be linked into the human-readable Web today. Just as the Web is based on a common representation format for content - HTML - the dataweb is based on a common representation format for data - XDI documents. Although all XDI documents are based on the same underlying RDF graph structure, they can be serialized in a number of formats. Although XML can be used, it is not the preferred format since the XML graph structure adds very little value -- XDI data is already completely structured. Instead the X3 format developed by the XDI TC, which was inspired by both the N3 RDF format and JSON, is recommended. (There is also a pure JSON version of X3.)
Along with a single, common format for data identification and description, XDI is also a protocol for exchanging XDI documents. This protocol can be bound to multiple transport protocols. The XDI TC is defining bindings to HTTP and HTTPS, however the XDI protocol could be bound to any transport capable of sending and receiving XDI documents.
The third key element of XDI is standardizing a portable authorization format -- a concept referred to as link contracts. In XDI, link contracts are XDI documents (which may be contained in other XDI documents) that enable control over the authority, security, privacy, and rights of shared data to be expressed in a standard machine-readable format and understood by any XDI endpoint.
This approach to a globally-distributed data sharing network models the real-world mechanism of social contracts and legal contracts that bind civilized people and organizations in the real world today. Thus XDI can be a key enabler of the Social Web. It can also support a new legal concept, Virtual Rights, which are based on a new legal entity, the "virtual identity", and a new fundamental right: "to have or not to have a virtual identity".
Public services based on the OASIS XRI and XDI specifications are under development by an international non-profit organization, XDI.ORG.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- OASIS XDI TC wiki page with links to documents explaining the XDI RDF model
- X3 format
- OASIS XDI Technical Committee
- OASIS XRI Technical Committee
- XDI.ORG
- The Social Web: Creating An Open Social Network with XDI in the Planetwork Journal.
- Virtual Rights
- Andy Dale's blog about XRI, XDI and Identity
[edit] Implementations
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