IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com1 Simple Identifiers SID Improvements WD2  WD Frank Farance, , a division of Farance Inc. Presentation to LTSC Student Identifiers WG (IEEE )

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com2 Agenda Summary Review of Simple Identifiers Review of Ballot Comments Recommendations for Improvements Action Items for Next Meeting

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com3 Student Identifiers, Simple Identifiers Need common method for identifying students –How do a write a student’s identifier –Generalized to non-students (e.g., teachers) Common method for authenticating identifiers –Not it scope of WG (for now) Uses of Identifiers –Sign-on/session identifier –Can link several types of learner information

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com4 Related Work Other types of identifiers: –Social security numbers: problems, both identity and authentication –Kerberos: compatibility issues among realms –LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol): solving “phone directory” problem, not an identifier solution –RFC directory names, map in/out – names: may be used –UUIDs and other GUIDs may be used

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com5 Technical Constraints Identifiers are strings with limited character set Identifiers support international character sets Identifiers can be embedded in filenames Identifiers can be embedded in URLs Identifiers can be embedded in addresses Identifiers can be embedded in domains Identifiers might not specify domains

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com6 Strings With Limited Character Set Identifiers may include the following characters: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h I j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z _ -. Some characters can be problematic, e.g., ” Example: “ john.doe.ps217.nyc.ny.us ” or “ id ”

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com7 Standards Wording Identifiers shall consist of “name components” separated by “name separators” Name components shall consist of the following encoding characters: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h I j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z _

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com8 Support for International Characters International characters are based on ISO name and described as 8-, 16-, or 32- bits: 8-bit characters: %hh 16-bit characters: %uhhhh 32-bit characters: %Uhhhhhhhh Allows any international character, example: “ Côté” ==> C%e2t%dc

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com9 Standards Wording The name separator shall be the period “.”. Characters that are not one of the encoding characters shall be represented in one of the following forms: –0x00 to 0xFF: %hh –0x0000 to 0xFFFF: %uhhhh –0x to 0xFFFFFFFF: %Uhhhhhhhh where “h” is a hexadecimal digit.

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com10 Naming Policy Informative wording... incorporate as Annex Naming policy is outside scope of SID Name registries can have allow more than one SID per person Name registries can restrict SIDs to one per person (higher validation) Singularity is a policy issue If you need “singular” identifiers, only accept identifiers from registries with “singular” policy, e.g., “unique.com”

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com11 Embedding Simple Identifiers In Other Namespaces Informative wording... incorporate as Annex Compatibility with other namespaces is critical for widespread adoption Filename example: /home/C%e2t%dc URL example: example: Domain example: C%e2t%dc.users.xyz.edu

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com12 Outstanding Issues Should percent characters be used? Open Issue Should plus characters be used? No. Should minus characters be used? Yes, but what about underscore? Should we specify mapping to programming language identifiers? Informative annex Should periods define name separators? Informative annex Should there be a minimum-maxima length?

IEEE , Improvements for WD2, F. Farance, ©2000 Edutool.Com13 Future Work Develop document ready for Sponsor Ballot at meeting -- revision to PAR? Fill in missing words, rationale Annex on mapping well-known registries Annex on “dot” conventions Investigate compatibility with conventions? List ISO standards and IETF specifications in a bibliography