Home >  Archive >  2011 >  March >  4


Previous / Next

Using DNS as a thin ID system

By Dave Winer on Friday, March 04, 2011 at 4:39 PM.

A picture named beetlejuice.jpgJust thinking out loud here. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Suppose a user had control of a name that can be looked up through DNS. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Something like: dave.me or dave.easy.com, for example.  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

The former would be done through a registrar, the latter by a web service. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Suppose in both cases the user could define a file whose name would only be known to him. That's the password. When you sign in you'd enter the domain and the name of the file where username and password are requested.  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Then the site requesting a validated ID would make this request: Permanent link to this item in the archive.

http://username/password Permanent link to this item in the archive.

If what came back is a 404, you're not authorized.  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

If a 200 came back -- you're in.  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

The body of the request could be something like a feed or an OPML file with info about the person. Basic stuff that any authenticated site is allowed to have. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Seems that's about as thin as an ID system can get. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

A picture named signin.gif Permanent link to this item in the archive.

And there's nothing innovative about it. We just need something like this that's quick easy for users to set up, with a name they're likely to trust. Permanent link to this item in the archive.
About the author

A picture named daveTiny.jpgDave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

Contact me

scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

Facebook

Twitter

Friendfeed

My sites
Recent stories

Recent links

My 40 most-recent links, ranked by number of clicks.

My bike

People are always asking about my bike.

A picture named bikesmall.jpg

Here's a picture.

Calendar

March 2011
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
  

Feb   Apr

Warning!

A picture named warning.gif

FYI: You're soaking in it. :-)


A picture named xmlMini.gif


© Copyright 1997-2011 Dave Winer. Last update: Friday, March 04, 2011 at 8:11 PM Eastern. Last build: 3/17/2011; 10:06:12 AM. "It's even worse than it appears." RSS feed for Scripting News


Previous / Next