Permissive Commons

Permissive Commons, as defined by Holborn (2019), are shared resources governed by custodial frameworks that balance accessibility with controlled permissions, unlike open data's unrestricted access model. They support human-centric knowledge ecosystems by enabling decentralized, semantically rich data sharing with provenance and trust. Examples include community-managed facilities like farmers' cooperatives or civic amenities, extended to digital contexts via semantic web technologies.

W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)

DIDs are globally unique URIs that resolve to DID documents, containing metadata and service endpoints for accessing RDF content across decentralized protocols. Designed as identifiers for entities, not identity, DIDs support various methods (e.g., did:ipid, did:ethr) and are independent of centralized registries. See W3C DID v1.0.

Cool URIs and the Semantic Web

Cool URIs, per W3C’s Cool URIs for the Semantic Web, are persistent identifiers critical for RDF data in the web of data. DIDs enhance this by providing decentralized, tamper-resistant URIs, replacing HTTP URIs to ensure long-term accessibility and alignment with Permissive Commons' governance model.

Persistent Identifiers

DIDs replace HTTP URIs in RDF triples, decoupling identifiers from centralized domain registries. This ensures persistence, aligning with Cool URI principles and supporting Permissive Commons' goal of trustworthy, long-term accessible knowledge resources.

Support for Plurality of Protocols

DIDs support multiple decentralized protocols (e.g., IPFS, blockchain, BitTorrent, Git), enabling RDF content to be stored and accessed flexibly. This aligns with Permissive Commons' emphasis on decentralized, interoperable systems, as outlined in WebizenAI documentation.

Custodial Governance

Permissive Commons requires custodial governance to manage permissions (e.g., read, write, append). DIDs enable cryptographic verification of custodians, ensuring only authorized agents access or modify RDF content, as per Holborn’s vision of permissioned access over open data’s unrestricted model.

Semantic Web Interoperability

DID documents, formatted as JSON-LD, integrate seamlessly with RDF and SPARQL, enabling semantic web applications to reference decentralized data. This supports Permissive Commons' goal of machine- and human-readable knowledge ecosystems.

RDF on IPFS

An RDF dataset for civic amenities (e.g., public toilets) is stored on IPFS, referenced by a did:ipid DID, governed by a local council.

{
  "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/did/v1",
  "id": "did:ipid:QmCivicData123",
  "service": [{
    "id": "#civic-data",
    "type": "LinkedDataResource",
    "serviceEndpoint": "ipfs://QmCivicData123"
  }],
  "verificationMethod": [{
    "id": "#key-1",
    "type": "Ed25519VerificationKey2020",
    "controller": "did:ipid:QmCivicData123",
    "publicKeyMultibase": "z6Mkr..."
  }]
}
      

@prefix ex:  .
 ex:location "Main St Park" ;
                                ex:managedBy  .
      

Resilience: IPFS ensures immutability, with the DID providing a persistent identifier managed by a custodial authority.

RDF on Blockchain

An RDF dataset for a health research ontology is stored on Ethereum, referenced by a did:ethr DID, with access restricted to authorized researchers.

{
  "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/did/v1",
  "id": "did:ethr:0xHealthData123",
  "service": [{
    "id": "#health-ontology",
    "type": "LinkedDataResource",
    "serviceEndpoint": "https://etherscan.io/tx/0xHealthData123"
  }],
  "verificationMethod": [{
    "id": "#key-1",
    "type": "EcdsaSecp256k1VerificationKey2019",
    "controller": "did:ethr:0xHealthData123",
    "publicKeyHex": "0x02b9..."
  }]
}
      

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@id": "did:ethr:0xHealthData123#Ontology",
  "type": "MedicalCondition",
  "name": "DiabetesStudy",
  "custodian": "did:ethr:0xResearchInstitute"
}
      

Resilience: Ethereum ensures tamper-resistance, with the DID enforcing permissioned access for research purposes.

RDF via BitTorrent

An RDF ontology for environmental data is shared via BitTorrent, referenced by a did:web DID.

{
  "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/did/v1",
  "id": "did:web:envdata.org:ontology",
  "service": [{
    "id": "#env-ontology",
    "type": "LinkedDataResource",
    "serviceEndpoint": "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:EnvData123..."
  }],
  "verificationMethod": [{
    "id": "#key-1",
    "type": "JsonWebKey2020",
    "controller": "did:web:envdata.org:ontology",
    "publicKeyJwk": {...}
  }]
}
      

  
    Coral Reef
  

      

Resilience: BitTorrent ensures availability through peer-to-peer distribution, with the DID providing a stable identifier.

RDF in Git

An RDF vocabulary for social research is stored in a Git repository, referenced by a hypothetical did:git DID.

{
  "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/did/v1",
  "id": "did:git:SocialVocab123",
  "service": [{
    "id": "#social-vocab",
    "type": "LinkedDataResource",
    "serviceEndpoint": "https://github.com/example/repo/commit/SocialVocab123"
  }],
  "verificationMethod": [{
    "id": "#key-1",
    "type": "Ed25519VerificationKey2020",
    "controller": "did:git:SocialVocab123",
    "publicKeyMultibase": "z6Mkr..."
  }]
}
      

@prefix ex:  .
 ex:definition "Social Interaction" .
      

Resilience: Git’s distributed nature ensures versioned accessibility, with the DID providing a persistent identifier.

Content Immutability

Content-addressing (IPFS, BitTorrent) and cryptographic hashing (blockchain, Git) ensure RDF content referenced by DIDs remains immutable, preserving semantic integrity and trust, as emphasized in Holborn (2019).

Redundancy and Availability

Decentralized protocols distribute RDF content across nodes, ensuring availability. DIDs provide a unified identifier for resolution, supporting Permissive Commons’ goal of accessible knowledge ecosystems.

Custodial Trust and Governance

DIDs enable cryptographic verification of custodians, ensuring permissioned access and governance, aligning with Permissive Commons’ emphasis on controlled, trustworthy resource sharing.

Semantic Trust

By integrating with RDF and semantic web standards, DIDs support machine- and human-readable knowledge, enabling trustworthy inferencing and sense-making, as outlined in WebCivics documentation.

Scalability and Performance

Decentralized protocols vary in scalability (e.g., blockchain latency, IPFS seeding requirements). DID methods must optimize performance to support Permissive Commons’ widespread adoption.

Privacy and Dignity

Public DIDs and RDF content may expose sensitive data. Permissive Commons requires privacy-preserving mechanisms (e.g., zero-knowledge proofs) to protect human dignity, as highlighted by Holborn (2019).

Interoperability Across DID Methods

Diverse DID methods may hinder seamless RDF integration. Standardization, as pursued in WebizenAI efforts, is critical for interoperability.