W3C Launches WebID Development Group for Browser-Authentication

Considered the first step in supporting fully standard-based browser authentication, the WebID protocol was graced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) with an official development group.

The WebID Incubator Group was announced January 14th 2011, and will be in charge with coordinating the efforts of several entities that have worked on WebID in the past two years, since the protocol's launch.

For those who do not know what WebID actually is, this is the protocol official description, in more common words: “an authentication protocol that uses the SSL/TLS layer for user identification by tying the client to a profile document on the Web through placing a URI in a certificate.”

The official protocol draft also describes the protocol's purpose as being to “ alleviate the difficultly that remembering different logins, passwords and settings for websites”

WebID is basically designed to provide a universal and extensible mechanism to transfer public and private information about an user, while also working in collaboration with present technologies.

This not only allows a more standardized environment for browser-authentication, but allows applications working on peer to peer server authentication as well.

Founding members of the development group include The Apache Software Foundation, DERI Galway, Garlik, INRIA, Nokia, OpenLink Software, Talis, Telecom Italia SpA, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (alphabetical order).

There's no doubt that other major players on the Web will flock to join the group, since WebID's implementation fields are vast and attractive at the same time.

The protocol is a gem in the making, and could affect the activity of companies involved in browser development, social networking, web authentication providers, ecommerce ventures and of course online security firms.

An W3C Incubator Group does not develop W3C standards (that is limited to W3C Working Groups only), but in most cases serve as a starting point for all future official W3C supported protocols and standards.

The current protocol draft can be consulted on WebID's official homepage.