Re: [mmox] OGP scalability concerns

[Jon Watte <[e-mail]>]

Meadhbh Hamrick (Infinity) wrote:
> to date, the proposed use of X.509 has been to identify agent domains 
> to region domains and region domains to each other. i don't think 
> we're proposing the use of client certs for client applications to 
> authenticate themselves to agent domains. or rather... no one's 
> talking about REQUIRING it. as an option, it's perfectly fine, though 
> a touch difficult to manage.

I think that authentication comes in two flavors: Authenticating users, 
and authenticating entities that authenticate users. If you will, OAuth 
authenticates users, but how do you know who the OAuth provider is? That 
may be a separately established trust, that may be negotiated, or may be 
untrusted-but-traceable.


    i would argue that there _are_ in fact OpenSim operators who would
    want to connect to linden servers and consume linden services.


I agree. However, there may also be operators who want to consume some 
Linden services, and some other services. Thus, it makes sense in that 
context, like John claims, to un-bundle each service. If the protocol 
allows you to discover multiple services in one go, and even 
authenticate for multiple services in one go, that's probably fine (and 
maybe even desired), but there shouldn't be anything in the protocol 
that requires all the services to come in one bundle. Even if some 
providers can provide them all in a bundle, the user probably will want 
to un-bundle them in certain cases.

Sincerely,

jw