XRI
Introduction
I-names are one form of an XRI (see below) and represent a unique name for a person or an organization. I-names are related to unique I-numbers (i.e. the equivalent of IP addresses for humans).
The advantage of i-name is that a user can control what kind of information what kind of service or agent can access. e.g. one may give or not give permission to tranlate an i-name into an email-address. XDI (retrieved 21:35, 23 February 2010 (UTC)) explains the advantage of I-Names in the following way: “Conventional addresses such as postal addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses are tied to a specific location, device, or service. By contrast, i-names are abstract—they are not tied to any specific location or device. Instead they are a way to ask permission to contact an individual or organization—and for the i-name owner to control to whom this permission is granted. [...] An i-name is simply unspammable — you can’t send it email, call it, or send it a fax directly unless the owner has given you permission.”.
The XRI standard
XRI is a standard that defines a fairly abstract concept for defining various identity schemes like i-cards, i-names, i-numbers and OpenID. XRI stands for EXtensible Resource Identifier and has been developed by OASIS as “a standard for a high-level naming/identification system for individuals, businesses, communities, services and data on the Internet. XRI, along with XDI, a general-purpose data interchange protocol based on XRI, were developed to create the "Dataweb," which enables the Web to operate like a global database.” (ZDNet, retrieved 21:42, 23 February 2010 (UTC)). XRI's are also an option for OpenID user names. I-names are unique humain readable names, but they may change over time for a given subject. I-numbers are machine readable identifiers and should remain persistent. I.e. an application would both remember the i-name and the i-number. The latter should always point to the same person, even when the i-name changes.
- The XRI Identifiers (I-Names and I-numbers) are administered by XDI.org. I.e. XDI.org accredits I-Brokers. You can find these on the i-broker page page of inames.net
Links
- Organizations
- OASIS is a major player for XML-related standards. With respect to digital identity: SAML, XDI, XRI etc. See also the XRI committee, Web Services Security (WSS) Technical Committee, eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) Technical Committee, etc.
- XDI.org (manages XRI spaces), i.e. through inames.net (the XDI.org portal for i-names)
- Technical information