From 1cb2dab09440d4c77afa0261485b333ba28bd0ee Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christopher Lemmer Webber Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2019 13:50:02 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Add an introduction --- README.org | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+) diff --git a/README.org b/README.org index c88b69b..2cc7570 100644 --- a/README.org +++ b/README.org @@ -7,6 +7,31 @@ * Conceptual overview +The federated social web is living in its second golden age, after +the original success of StatusNet and OStatus in the late 2000s. +A lot of this success has been around unification of adoption of a +single protocol, [[https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/][ActivityPub]], to connect together the many different +instances and applications into a unified network. + +Unfortunately from a security and social threat perspective, the way +ActivityPub is currently rolled out is under-prepared to protect its +users. +In this paper we introduce OcapPub, which is compatible with the original +ActivityPub specification. +With only mild to mildly-moderate adjustments to the existing network, +we can deliver what we call "networks of consent": explicit and +intentional connections between different users and entities on the +network. +The idea of "networks of consent" is then implemented on top of a +security paradigm called "object capabilities", which as we will see +can be neatly mapped on top of the actor model, on which ActivityPub +is based. + +Paradoxically, what may initially appear to be a restriction actually +opens up the possibility of richer interactions than were previously +possible on the federated social web while better preserving the +intentions of users on the network. + ** ActivityPub # - ActivityPub is an actor model protocol.