Re: [Auth]A comment on terminology

[Hans Zandbelt]

At 10:10 1/8/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>The term 'Profile Provider' is misleading. I recommend
>'Profile Host' as a replacement.  'Profile Provider' implies
>that it is the source of the profile data. But, of course, a
>Profile Host only hosts the profile, the owner of the data
>'Provides' the data.

I agree, but I used the "Provider" part to indicate that
the "Profile ..." is (in my opinion) a slightly more active role
than the traditional web-hosting; is that true?
Profile ... needs to offer services to a user to manage his profile
and access policies remotely. Potentially a Profile ... is able
to put constraints on the profile information.
Plus he needs to enforce the user defined access policies on
profile requesters; especially this is what I wanted to stress.

If you (and others) think that the last aspect is also covered
by the term "Host", I will conform.

>The term 'Content Provider' is restrictive. I recommend
>'Service Provider' as a replacement. Although a Service
>Provider may merely provide content, the interesting ones
>also provide other services.

I agree.

>Profile Host:      Hosts profiles to facilitate remote
>access.
>Profile Owner:     Owns profile data and controls access to
>it.
>Service Provider:  Creates and delivers Web Services that
>request profile data.
>
>This is the terminology that I intend to use.

I will do so as well from now on.

Hans.

------------------------------------------------------------
Hans Zandbelt                         address@hidden 
Telematica Instituut                     http://www.telin.nl 
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