by joe
on 17. Apr, 2010
in Misc
with 576 views
A few alpha users have been asking.. “I get that it’s a web interface but, how does this fit into the bigger picture?”
A quick diagram:
The light blue part is what we built first. You have the air traffic control stuff at the top.. the things to make this distributed network work. Probably the most important here is the Root server which allows us to translate a TrustFabric identifier (TFID) to an Agent location. This means you can host your own agent wherever you like. Also important is the schema server which defines the document types.
Then, you’ll notice the hosted service with two Agents in the block. Each user gets a hosted Agent. To the right is a small block “TF Web”.. that is the web interface which you are using to talk to your hosted agent. You’ll notice we are planning other user interfaces (UIs).
I guess by now you’ve figured out that not all agents will be hosted by us. We want to make the Agent code open source so you can run an agent anywhere on the internet.
There are some missing parts, in Alpha2 we plan to start adding some features for business users:
Our challenge is to manage (hide) most of this complexity, but we suspect some of our more geeky users like this stuff.
by joe
on 14. Apr, 2010
in Misc
with 545 views
We installed a new design for the .org site today. The old design was a bit broken, so we figured we’ll just buy a Whootheme.
Still tinkering with it, but it should be good enough for the next month or two.
Next, more content.
by joe
on 13. Apr, 2010
in Misc
with 2,763 views
We’re a bit more than 3 months into this project. We’ve spent some time thinking about our brand, design and corp id. Maybe now is a good time to ask our community what they think of it, so please give us your ideas.
We’d like some feedback on three things in particular:
1) Do you think the words “Connect. Share. Trust.” fit what we are doing?
2) Do you like the logo? Does it make sense in the context of agents and a fabric of trust?
3) Do you think the logo is distinctive or recognisable enough?
by joe
on 10. Apr, 2010
in Misc
with 459 views
Audio and slides from our Alpha1 announcement talk at the GeekDinner, 2010-03-30.. could be better, but it’s a first attempt at talking about the project.
by joe
on 06. Apr, 2010
in Misc
with 489 views
TrustFabric is Four Things:
1. TrustFabric is about trusted relationships.
We all have lots of relationships: The websites we have accounts on, insurance companies, your dentist, your kid’s school, your bank, your friends and family, even that girl you met at a braai last week. Most of these relationships store information about you. Your dentist might only have your phone number, your medical aid knows your ID number and blood pressure. TrustFabric consolidates your relationships and information, allowing you to selectively share information with those relationships.
2. TrustFabric is Open.
Not only is our software Open Source, but the information you store on TrustFabric is 100% *your data* and you can do whatever you want with it. You can write your own software to interact with it, you can extract it, or, should you wish, you can even delete it. (A foreign concept these days). To make things even more open, TrustFabric is a fully distributed service. As a result you can run your own TrustFabric Agent in a secret bunker under the sea if you like. TrustFabric is all about democratising personal information management.
3. TrustFabric is Secure.
All communication on TrustFabric is private and is signed with your own digital certificate. This means that not only is it safe from digital eavesdroppers, but you can also be sure that no one is able to pretend to be you.
4. TrustFabric provides Identity.
Having your own digital certificate means that when you interact with other entities on TrustFabric, they can be certain that they’re dealing with the right person and visa versa. TrustFabric will eventually allow you to generate digital certificates for you to use in Web Browsers and Mail Clients. We’ll also be able to have pieces of data signed by higher authorities so that you could, for instance, share your verified ID number while digitally signing a lease agreement.
by joe
on 04. Apr, 2010
in Misc
with 541 views
What am I looking at?
It’s a web interface (webui) which talks SOAP to your Agent. The idea is to have a few other UI’s later on.. on your mobile phone for example.
When you sign up, you get to choose your TrustFabric Identifier (TFID) and an agent is created for you. The webui allows you to give some basic instructions to your Agent. Create a document. Request relationships. View documents published by agents you have a relationship with.
That’s all the alpha does really.
I created a “document”, why call it that?
Agents are message brokers. They understand relationships and they understand documents.. think XML documents, not JPG/PDF. Agents don’t use a relational database design to store your information.. it’s a document-centric design.
We did not want to get stuck in the translation between xml and sql thinking, so everything is a document.
I still don’t understand why you’re calling it a “document”, as opposed to a “profile”?
The current “business card” thing is a hack. It’s just so people get a feel for what it’s about.
We could have chosen to make it a “my status” document and re-invent Twitter (-:
There will probably be a Agent config document at some point and it will probably contain the basics which people see as a profile.
I still don’t really get the “Why”? (more examples please)
Why is it a good idea to keep documents inside your agent? Again, we are talking about XML documents here. Keep in mind TrustFabric is about machine readable documents.
Let’s say I create a Travel Preferences document. This allows a hotel or airline to figure out what food I like. How I like to travel. What newspaper I’d like in the morning. Think of it as CRM in the hands of the customer.
Let’s say I want to keep a central bookmarks list which I can access from my laptop, home and work pc.
Let’s say I often re-install my OS. When I put an Ubuntu CD in a machine it asks for my TFID. It never has to ask for my language, time-zone, keyboard layout etc, because my agent provides a Computing Preferences document.
Let’s say I’d like to always have the latest contact details for all my friends on my mobile phone.. but I also want to know how and when they prefer to be contacted. Not everybody likes phone calls after 21:00. Not everybody likes text messages.
There are obviously more formal applications, but this should give you an idea of how you could use TrustFabric documents to make life a little bit more efficient.
by joe
on 03. Apr, 2010
in Misc
with 441 views
TrustFabric launched an invite-only alpha service this week.
We see this as a “Minimum Viable Product”.. something our first users can play with to get an idea of how TrustFabric will work. There are not many features at the moment. In fact, all you can do is share a business card (xml) document, but that’s the idea. We want to get feedback from users as soon as possible. We don’t want to go build some complex thing which people don’t want to use.
Our idea is to have 20-30 users now and add users as we release a new version every month.
Read more about the two launch events we did for the Alpha version:
by joe
on 03. Apr, 2010
in Misc
with 548 views
“Speak softly and carry a big idea.”
