The TPKI "watershed" issue

Sorry for the abundance of messages, but the following message should IMHO be of interest to the whole group.

Essentially one simple question will determine how the rest of the TPKI project will be.

The "watershed" issue is:

Is the anticipated TPKI mechanism supposed to work IDENTICALLY in the targeted leading browsers? This would imply no less than a STANDARDS EFFORT.

Or is the goal rather to find out what the various browsers in their current versions can do in terms signing and encryption? This is a MARKET RESEARCH project. Given the plugin constraint (no ActiveX etc) in the current TPKI draft, this can be done in a month or so.

If OTOH, the 50+ plugin schemes are to be included, this is a MAJOR effort. Much of the information is in foreign languages, poorly documented, and often NDA protected. The latter for example is always the case for schemes created by the financial sector. The biopharma industries' USSI is currently also NDA protected.

Since there are only two voting members in the AGSC, and the rest are mainly passive members, I suggest a "straw poll" to get some indications of what other people think of this. If there is no or few response, I don't think that we have to bother much about ANY TPKI issue :-)

Also, I would like to know how much the "wiz-kid" is supposed to work for this SC and if possible who he or she is.

thanx

Anders

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