-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
Expand file tree
/
Copy pathscep0102.html
More file actions
314 lines (273 loc) · 15.7 KB
/
scep0102.html
File metadata and controls
314 lines (273 loc) · 15.7 KB
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
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Structured Commons :: SCEP0102 - Certificates of existence </title>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<link href="http://www.structured-commons.org/feeds/all.atom.xml" type="application/atom+xml" rel="alternate" title="Structured Commons Full Atom Feed" />
<!-- Mobile viewport optimized: j.mp/bplateviewport -->
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.structured-commons.org/theme/gumby.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.structured-commons.org/theme/style.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.structured-commons.org/theme/pygment.css" />
<script src="http://www.structured-commons.org/theme/js/libs/modernizr-2.6.2.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body id="index" class="home">
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<header id="banner" class="body">
<h1><a href="http://www.structured-commons.org">Structured Commons <strong></strong></a></h1>
</header><!-- /#banner -->
<div id="navigation" class="navbar row">
<a href="#" gumby-trigger="#navigation > ul" class="toggle"><i class="icon-menu"></i></a>
<ul class="columns">
<li><a href="http://www.structured-commons.org/online-forum.html">Forum</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.structured-commons.org/index.html">About</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.structured-commons.org/mission.html">Mission statement</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.structured-commons.org/org.html">Organization</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.structured-commons.org/participating.html">Participating</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.structured-commons.org/scep0000.html">SCEPs</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<!--<h1>SCEP0102 – SCEP0102 - Certificates of existence</h1>-->
<table class="docinfo"><col class="docinfo-name" /><col class="docinfo-content" />
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="field"><th class="docinfo-name">SCEP:</th><td class="field-body">102</td></tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="docinfo-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">Certificates of existence</td></tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="docinfo-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">b472c0fd9d1166dcfd3a3a252ba6b5c8eda869aa</td></tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="docinfo-name">Last modified:</th><td class="field-body">2014-06-16 09:23:16 UTC (Mon, 16 June 2014)</td></tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="docinfo-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Raphael ‘kena’ Poss</td></tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="docinfo-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Draft</td></tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="docinfo-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td></tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="docinfo-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">2014-06-16</td></tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="docinfo-name">Source:</th><td class="field-body"><a href="scep0102.rst">scep0102.rst</a> (<tt>fp:UxooFx6O-Q7LWpHThUuhrjyNx926SML8_LVTVLDbovC6tw</tt>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="section" id="definition">
<h2>Definition</h2>
<p>A <strong>certificate of existence</strong> (CoE) binds an object with a date stamp
and asserts that the object existed no later than the certified date.</p>
<p>A CoE exists outside of the object that it certifies. Each object can
be attested by more than one CoE.</p>
<p>CoEs are intended for display in citation contexts, for example "this
document refers to another document D, attested by CoEs X, Y, and Z".</p>
<p>The Structured Commons model supports multiple <em>certification methods</em>
to generate and verify CoEs, including a variety of historical
mechanisms already in use in academic publishing.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="certification-methods">
<h2>Certification methods</h2>
<p>New certifications methods may be defined over time, as long as they are publicly
documented and certificates can be independently verified by users.</p>
<p>Each certification method must provide at least the following services:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>from an object or fingerprint, generate a CoE for a calendar date no
earlier than the date of the request;</li>
<li>from a CoE and object, verify the CoE is valid and
return the earliest attested date for the fingerprint;</li>
<li>represent the CoE as a textual, printable <em>CoE signature</em> that can be
embedded in citation contexts.</li>
</ul>
<p>All CoE signatures must match the following common format: the method
name, followed by a colon, followed optionally by the certified date stamp with
format <span class="caps">YYYY</span>-<span class="caps">MM</span>-<span class="caps">DD</span> and a colon, followed by a textual
representation of the CoE:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
signature: METHOD ':' [ DATESTAMP ':' ] CERTIFICATE
</pre>
<p>This format is purposely defined to overlap with the syntax already
used in academic works to refer to certificates of existence, cf. the
next section.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="predefined-certification-methods">
<h2>Predefined certification methods</h2>
<p>The following CoE methods are predefined:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="7%" />
<col width="49%" />
<col width="43%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Name</th>
<th class="head">Meaning of CoE signature</th>
<th class="head">Base <span class="caps">URL</span> for verification</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td>doi</td>
<td>registered Digital Object Identifier <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id9" id="id1">[1]</a> <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id10" id="id2">[2]</a></td>
<td><a class="reference external" href="http://dx.doi.org/%s">http://dx.doi.org/%s</a></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>acmid</td>
<td>publication <span class="caps">ID</span> in the <span class="caps">ACM</span> Digital Library <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id11" id="id3">[3]</a></td>
<td><a class="reference external" href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=%s">http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=%s</a></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>arxiv</td>
<td>ArXiv document identifier</td>
<td><a class="reference external" href="http://arxiv.org/abs/%s">http://arxiv.org/abs/%s</a></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>btc</td>
<td>Document digest</td>
<td><a class="reference external" href="http://www.proofofexistence.com/detail/%s">http://www.proofofexistence.com/detail/%s</a></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>ocn</td>
<td><span class="caps">OCLC</span> Control Number <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id12" id="id4">[4]</a> <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id13" id="id5">[5]</a></td>
<td><a class="reference external" href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/%s">http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/%s</a></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>isbn</td>
<td>International Standard Book Number <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id14" id="id6">[6]</a> <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id15" id="id7">[7]</a></td>
<td>N/A</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>These methods correspond to historical mechanisms that are already trusted by scholars
to deliver reliable registration services.</p>
<p>Some example valid CoE signatures:</p>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt>arxiv:2014-04-30:1404.7753</dt>
<dd>method: arXiv, attested date April 30th, 2014, certificate "1404.7753"</dd>
<dt>arxiv:1404.7753</dt>
<dd>method: arXiv, omitted date, certificate "1404.7753"</dd>
<dt>doi:2014-06-09:10.1145/2618137.2618139</dt>
<dd>method: <span class="caps">DOI</span>, attested date June 9th, 2014, certificate "10.1145/2618137.2618139"</dd>
<dt>doi:10.1145/2618137.2618139</dt>
<dd>method: <span class="caps">DOI</span>, omitted date, certificate "10.1145/2618137.2618139"</dd>
<dt>acmid:2014-06-09:2618137.2618139</dt>
<dd>method: <span class="caps">ACMID</span>, attested date June 9th, 2014, certificate "2618137.2618139"</dd>
<dt>acmid:2618137.2618139</dt>
<dd>method: <span class="caps">ACMID</span>, omitted date, certificate "2618137.2618139"</dd>
</dl>
<div class="note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">These CoE signature formats correspond to the format already used by scholars
to embed the <span class="caps">DOI</span>, ArXiv, <span class="caps">ACM</span> id, etc. in bibliographical citations. This
choice is intentional, to enable the direct capture of this existing practice
within the Structured Commons model.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="hypertext-references">
<h2>Hypertext references</h2>
<p>In a hypertext context, each CoE signature representation should be
configured as a hyperlink to the certificate <span class="caps">URI</span>.</p>
<p>For example, an <tt class="docutils literal">arxiv</tt> CoE sig can redirect to the <span class="caps">URI</span>
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">http://arxiv.org/abs/</span></tt> followed by the arXiv identifier:
<a class="reference external" href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.7753">arxiv:2014-04-30:1404.7753</a></p>
<p>See the table above for a list of base URLs to use for the predefined
certification methods.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="very-long-term-durability">
<h2>Very long term durability</h2>
<p>As certification requires trusted 3rd parties, a risk exists that the
disappearance of a certification authority will make the verification
of a single internet-based CoE difficult, expensive or even impossible.</p>
<p>This risk increases over time, and ensuring CoE verification stays possible
is quite relevant considering the Structured Commons model envisions
preserving knowledge over the very long term (50+ years).</p>
<p>Historically, durable CoE verifiability was ensured by printing
journals on paper, and archiving multiple paper copies over time and
in different libraries over the world. Even hundred years later, we
are able to check 18th century articles existed no later than a
particular date by investigating and cross-checking paper
archives. This method is effective even for works that are not
published in journals, <em>as long as journals cite them</em>: if a work A is
cited by journal J which is attested to exist at date D by a set of
printed copies, then A is attested to have existed no later than D.</p>
<p>Starting with the Internet, more and more works are published "online
only" and never cited by printed journals, so the CoE durability
provided by journals becomes largely ineffective.</p>
<p>There are three strategies to guarantee the very long term
verifiability of CoEs, even without printed journals, in increasing
order of effectiveness:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li>creating multiple CoEs using more than one certification method (decreases the risk that
the disappearance of one certification authority makes verification impossible);</li>
<li>archive CoE databases in durable media (eg. paper or microfilm
archives that map fingerprints to known CoEs);</li>
<li>ensure that <strong>works are cited using both their fingerprint and known CoEs</strong>, so
that the structured global web of knowledge serves as distributed
trusted database of CoEs.</li>
</ol>
<p>The last strategy is the most robust: if a work A is attested by CoE
X, and B cites A using A’s fingerprint and X’s signature, and the web
of knowledge attests B <em>via fingerprint</em> by citation in multiple other
works, then it becomes impossible to modify A or fake another CoE (or
attested date) because this would change A’s fingerprint and thus B’s.
Over time, the <em>structured citation network</em> will become the trusted database
of CoEs for past works.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="references">
<h2>References</h2>
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id9" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id1">[1]</a></td><td><a class="reference external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier</a></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id10" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id2">[2]</a></td><td><span class="caps">ISO</span>/<span class="caps">DIS</span> 26324:2012. "Information and documentation — Digital object identifier system".</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id11" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id3">[3]</a></td><td><a class="reference external" href="http://dl.acm.org/">http://dl.acm.org/</a></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id12" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id4">[4]</a></td><td><a class="reference external" href="http://www.oclc.org/batchload/controlnumber.en.html">http://www.oclc.org/batchload/controlnumber.en.html</a></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id13" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id5">[5]</a></td><td><a class="reference external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Computer_Library_Center">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Computer_Library_Center</a></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id14" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id6">[6]</a></td><td><span class="caps">ISO</span> 2108:2005. "Information and documentation — International standard book number (<span class="caps">ISBN</span>)".</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id15" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id7">[7]</a></td><td><a class="reference external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number</a></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<!-- Local Variables:
mode: rst
indent-tabs-mode: nil
sentence-end-double-space: t
fill-column: 70
coding: utf-8
End: -->
</div>
</div><!-- /.row -->
</div><!-- /.container -->
<div class="container.nopad bg">
<footer id="credits" class="row">
<div class="seven columns left-center">
<address id="about" class="vcard body">
Proudly powered by <a href="http://getpelican.com/">Pelican</a>,
which takes great advantage of <a href="http://python.org">Python</a>.
<br />
Based on the <a target="_blank" href="http://gumbyframework.com">Gumby Framework</a>
</address>
</div>
<div class="seven columns">
<div class="row">
<ul class="socbtns">
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</footer>
</div>
<script src="http://www.structured-commons.org/theme/js/libs/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://www.structured-commons.org/theme/js/libs/gumby.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://www.structured-commons.org/theme/js/plugins.js"></script>
</body>
</html>