However, present-day URLs for the most part are pretty simple. And
simplicity is good thing since it tends to align well with human nature.
This gives them a huge leg up on DNs from the start.
Marshall Rose and the NADF has already convinced the world that the DN
in an X.509 certificate has little or nothing to do with X.500 directory
services.
Einar Stefferud convinced the world that leveraging off the existing social
institutions for personal and organizational naming was the way to go. Steve
Kent seems to be the originator of the notion of a certificate as a (revocable)
name/key binding.
Verisign took these lessons very much to heart. We also learned that
the Web itself is its own user and knowledge directory service. I have
no doubt others also learned such simple lessons.
Steve Kent once showed a viewgraph asking: whats in a name (crossed-out)
public-key
certificate (in emphasis)
perhaps this should be replaced by, whats in a URN/public-key certificate
to keep up with the latest jargon for some very old notions.
what do you think?
Did Rose/Stefferud/Kent get it wrong?