Populance

Prepared for: Java Jive 2007

Prepared by:
Team Populance, Ngee Ann Polytechnic
Tan Jian Qi
Cheng Weisheng
Jeremy Foo
Facilitator:
Ms Pamela Loy

June 8, 2007

Populance

Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Executive Summary
Introduction
Social participation is a very large part of the new internet called Web 2.0. Highly interactive web applications would not hold
their audience if they do not provide a component that encourages interaction with other entities apart from the interactive
elements of that web applications. The age of instant gratification would be not complete without the ability to extend
beyond participation space of a single person.

Brief Description
Populance is a project that aims to consolidate and mange the multiple identity contexts that a person has on the Web 2.0
landscape. In addition, it allows for the simulation of a persons identity by allowing creation of trusted relationships with
another similar application platform. Like a persons identity in real life, its credibility can be determined by the amount of
content that is publicly and privately available within the public and trusted context. This can be done via automated or
human verifiable means.
With the management of multiple sources of content and the ability to verify and authenticate each source as belonging to a
user, it extends the application to generate new sources of content and provide new services based upon the trusted
relationships it builds and the trusted content it holds.

Outline
The project can be summed up in 3 core components that provide the platform extensibility.

Services integration
Web 2.0 applications provide the ideal platform when it comes to services integration because most of such services provide
an API that allows other applications to access its services. And it is a common fact that such services provide a bidirectional
access to content, allowing third party applications read and write access to their services.
User created content is one of the biggest motivators of participation and by consolidating the services that the users has, it
allows them to create new content and thus a repetitive cycle. In addition, mash-ups can be formed easily if the central
system actually knows what and where content can be drawn from.
Thanks to the ubiquity of Java, there are various libraries already available to implement the different APIs of the web services
to integrate. Examples include Flickr and Googles GData API for Blogger.
An exploration of this central idea of services integration could be the abstraction of data such that when a piece of
information is added to the system, it can automatically determine which web services accepts such data and automatically
submits it via that services API.

Populance

Identity authentication
In keeping with the idea of a central identity, consolidation of services provides a base for the user to be authenticated by
another human. This revolves around the idea of a background check to determine if someone is speaking the truth or not
based on whatever information is already available about the person.
In addition, because the services and their respective identities are consolidated, it opens the idea that a more legit form of
authentication like OpenID can be implemented to give more credibility to the electronic system of authentication. This
provides a companion to the system that allows a 2 factor authentication by having an electronic system validate the user
then an actual human to verify.

Trusted relationships
To encourage participation, trusted relationships can be formed with other users running the same system. This provides an
additional means of authentication by having other users validate the identities, services and content by actually placing their
peers in a trust context.
This trusted relationships allows for users to provide a reference when they create content on other users sites thereby
building upon a relationship with that person that stems on participation. It encourages the building of communities of similar
interests effectively simulating a virtual societal structure.

System
With the 3 core components, Populance can effectively be thought of as a central hub for information when it comes to a
user it is representing. It can be thought of as a digital wallet for a user.

Identity and Relationships

Taking the idea that the new online enabled generation would most probably have an online space, Populance provides a
framework via making sure that it is branded as a unique entity on the internet. It achieves this by means of generating a
digital signature of itself that is unique to its installation and to its singular user who is also owner.
With this digital signature, it enables the concept of a public facade and a private facade of a person within virtual space but
means of generation of public and private keys, each representing the public access and trusted relationship access of the
system respectively.
This helps when relationships between two different identities are being formed. It allows for authentication of a persons
online context, ensures confidentiality of that relationship that is analogous for the relationships people have with other
individuals in real life. This ability to authenticate identities and ensure that both parties are secure opens up the relationship
for additional processes that are available when trusted relationships are formed.

Services Integration
Integration of the different web services that a user belongs to is like managing the different profiles that a user has in real life.
This is akin to being a person with multiple cards in the wallet that provides for different services. This management is
provided in the forms of using the Application Programming Interfaces of the different web services in the form of modules
that can be added dynamically to the web application.

Populance

Also, due to the idea of a Populance being a hub identity, and abstraction with regards to the data that different web services
accept can be made. This allows Populance to become the central authority for these web services when the owner
participates within the social context of the internet. They govern the addition, update, removal and listing of such content
and basically add to the different profiles to build upon the identity they represent.

Scenarios
Listed below are some possible scenarios for the usage of the system. As it mimics real life, it is entirely possible to have an
unlimited number of configuration options to suit many new different scenarios.

Login to Populance
The user is liken to opening up his wallet. Adding new identities, removing ones that he is no longer part of. He also has the
option to form communities based upon topics and host discussion using his own resources like in real life.

Forming a trusted relationship

Upon visiting a Populance enabled identity, the user would have the option to visit the central managing application and
choose to add that identity to his trusted context. This fires off the system to begin a process of authentication and waiting
for the other identitys user to finish the handshake to form the relationship.
Once the relationship is formed, the users identities will be made known to each other such that it simulates the different
groups of relationships that are like in real life. In addition, more private features of the identity and the profiles it manages will
be available.

Adding content
Another key aspect of the system is the ability to added content. Populance will automatically understand what type of
content is added and will push it out to the relevant web services it manages. It will also provide an update to the identitys
timeline and possibly notify its trusted relationships if it were specified.

Search
Search is the killer application and Populance uses the context of its trusted relationships to provide a more relevant search
system that actually matters to the owner of the identity.

Hosting of services
Populance can be easily extended via different modules. In addition to that extensibility, it also has the capability to host and
control content that might be akin to a real person hosting and managing content for a community of friends that share a
similar goal. Thanks to the trusted relationship context, it opens the user for participation on other identitys hosted services
as well as his own.

Requirements
Standards compliant browser that provides a method of accessing the XMLHttpRequest Object.
prototype Javascript Framework
script.aculo.us Javascript Library
Java Tomcat Server with support for;
Populance

 Cryptography Libraries; Hashing and Public/Private Key generation.

XML-RPC Support
MySQL Database back end.

Conclusion
With highly interactive Web 2.0 applications taking center stage, the amount of ideas for solutions that can be solved by
such applications reaches a limit. Thankfully, part of the Web 2.0 revolution is also the fact that user generated information
can be mixed and remixed to form and be used for different and hybrid applications. In addition to the amount of newly
formed content from what already exists, therein lies the problem of authentication, identity and license of such content.
Populance deals with such problems by bringing the concept of real world identities into the governing of our virtual
identities, effectively acting as a central hub for us to exist as entities online. It will try to bring how we act, behave, interact
and work in our real lives and apply it to the virtual context it exists in order to encourage participation due to its similarity to
what people are familiar with.

Populance