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1. Mike Macgirvin (mike@macgirvin.com)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2017 22:30:59 EDT Mike Macgirvin
   Mike Macgirvin wrote the following card Tue, 05 Sep 2017 11:55:25 +1000

   Zot VI
   Zot has been in use continually for over five years, with only a handful of minor upgrades. Most of these involved extending the cryptography mechanisms to allow negotiation and deprecate older/insecure algorithms.
   
   During this time. there have been a many changes in the external landscape and there are now some better ways of doing things which didn't exist in a stable form when zot was created. The goal of Zot VI is to bring the protocol in line with some of these changes. As an example we can now provide server-to-server authentication by making use of HTTP Signatures. There are a couple of other places in the protocol where we can reduce the complexity of interactions by using the same technology (increasing efficiency). As a side effect the entire protocol and message flow will be simplified and easier to integrate with external services.
   
   The proposed delivery method for this work is to expose it through a protocol plugin, (just like the other protocol plugins) and ultimately remove communication protocol implementations from core code. As Zot VI will not be directly compatible with zot, this allows a migration path; and servers will be able to support both.
   
   

   • 
     
   • Refactor zot-finger
     
   • Refactor Delivery
     
   • Refactor magic-auth
     
   • Refactor Directory Services
     
   • move to plugin
     
   • Release timeline
     
   1. Mike Macgirvin (mike@macgirvin.com)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Sep-2017 23:26:19 EDT Mike Macgirvin

      in reply to
      @mike Happy to hear about the use of HTTP Signatures!
   2. Mike Macgirvin (mike@macgirvin.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2017 00:24:44 EDT Mike Macgirvin

      in reply to
      @cwebber So what's so special about httpsigs?
      
      "Ooh, Mike's using something standard...."
      
      We support every popular open messaging stack. We use ActivityStreams, ActivityPub, Atom, webfinger, salmon, webdav, caldav, carrddav, xrd, openid, oauth, portablecontacts, oembed, opensearch, and many other standard protocols. So many I can't even list them all. Many of these I've developed from scratch. We've got gateways to xmpp, irc, and git. We've got a Twitter API (as well as our own). We've got OIDC and Oauth2 and SAML in the fire trying to get some more time to integrate.
      
      We only use our own protocols or extend standards when there is no existing protocol to do the specific things we need to do.  Maybe (some day) you should take a look at what we're doing and how it all fits together - instead of feeling elated about what specific protocol we happen to use for some minor purpose.
   3. Mike Macgirvin (mike@macgirvin.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2017 06:15:00 EDT Mike Macgirvin

      in reply to
      This looks like a complicated endeavor. Is the idea for people to try using the new protocol by enabling the plugin when it is at least at a "beta testing" stage? How can it coexist with current zot ("Zot V"?) when you enable the plugin? By overriding the relevant core function? Also, will this remain as an addon afterward?
      
      My favorite part of the Cards module is getting better insight into all the interesting things your are working on. The cards also explain the otherwise strange re-sharing of your own "post".
   4. Mike Macgirvin (mike@macgirvin.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2017 07:14:35 EDT Mike Macgirvin

      in reply to
      Good questions. At a high level, it is being treated just like an external protocol connector, so internally we won't even see them as zot connections. They will be 'zotvi' connections - using a different protocol. The difference  will be that this protocol connector can do literally everything zot can do - plus a bit more (I still have some surprises up my sleeve that I haven't shared). Once any quirks have been sorted out and assuming people are happy with it, we can talk about deprecating the original zot and converting existing connections. We might keep it for quite a while because there are still a fair number of older sites. It will remain as a plugin, though It might be included with the core repo.
   5. Mike Macgirvin (mike@macgirvin.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2017 11:50:22 EDT Mike Macgirvin

      in reply to
      Great Work, Great Efforts. For a Great Vision. I am personally far behind of understanding all the implications of all this visionary work.
      
      There seem to be so many use cases. I have to bring my brain on fire to find out what is already solved and may be done with it.
      
      Thank you for all this @Mike Macgirvin !
   6. Mike Macgirvin (mike@macgirvin.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2017 16:51:54 EDT Mike Macgirvin

      in reply to
      By the way, why not call it Zot EMACS instead?