On Wed, 3 Sep 1997, Mr C A Rusbridge wrote:
> > ...Do you know of any emerging national/international standards to assure
> > the integrity of electronic newsletters?...
>
> The only thing I can think of is the various emerging digital signature
> standards. A digital signature on an article, signed by (say) the author
> and the editor, would allow you to be sure that you have the complete,
> un-changed article as agreed by these two individuals.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are working on a Digital Signatures
Initiative (DSig) [1]. This will support not only digital signatures, as
described by Chris (the resource really does come from the Bath
University Research Office), but also (legally binding) assertions about
the resource (it really is a PhD thesis, it contains no obscene material).
Digital signatures are part of the metadata of a resource. DSig proposes
the use of the W3C PICS metadata work for storing digital signatures [2]
(although it seems that PICS/NG is being renamed RDF - Resource Discovery
Framework - possibly because of the connotation that PICS has with content
filtering. RDF will be an XML application.)
> JISC in the UK and CNI in the US are both considering initiatives on
> authentication which would potentially include the possibility of digital
> signatures.
I feel that JISC and the CNI should be monitoring the work being
coordinated within W3C and possibly join in the relevant working groups.
[1] See http://www.w3.org/Security/DSig/Overview.html
[2] See http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-DSIG-label.html
Brian
------------------------------------------------------
Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus
UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, England, BA2 7AY
Email: [log in to unmask] URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Phone: 01225 323943 FAX: 01225 826838
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