so ... lets explore the gov regulatory/licensing environment. one of the early assertions was that the TTP/CA certificates are attempting to be an electronic emulation of a hardcopy credential (or possibly license) targeted for the offline but electronic environment. The corresponding assertions is that as the world is rapidly migrating to electronic and online ... that there is a view that the use of a paradigm targeted for offline environment is obsolete technology in an online world.
So we have the 1960s and earlier environment (extending up today) where businesses gets various licenses and credentials from state licensing boards, the better business bureau, the AMA, a like ilk, These can be hung on the wall. If it is a no-value or low-value operation ... the customer is likely to take to take the wall plaque as sufficient. For value transactions, the customer is likely to call up the responsible agency to get a real time check as to things like is the business still in good standing, look for recent references, check about complaints, etc. We move to the offline, electronic world of the 1980s where the idea of electronic certificates started to happen. Basically these could be considered (offline) substitutes for various kinds of hardcopy instruments, credentials, licenses, and/or certificates. For no-value or low-value operations ... the customer is likely to take the static, stale credential as sufficient. For value transactions, the customers is still likely to call up the responsible agency to get a real time check as to things like is the business still in good standing, look for recent references, check about complaints, etc. We make it to the late 90s where it looks like the world is quickly becoming online. The licensing agencies look at the issues of providing ancient offline technology or move into the online world. In the online world paradigm, set up a website in lieu of an old-fashion electronic certificate (but probably still issue old fashion hardcopy certificates). The online website has all the information that somebody might be interested in if they were to make a phone call to ask about details related to a specific business. This can be organized hierarchically ... effectively the summary of the information that might appear in a paper certificate ... but having real-time status. The prospective customer can then go into more detail. The assertions here ... is that even gov. and other kinds of licensing agencies ... which have one of the few business models where the person being certified pays for the certification .... now are faced with the option of being an ancient offline TTP/CA issuing 1980s technology electronic credentials (emulating even orlder, offline hardcopy credentials) ... or move to an online world paradigm that supports real-time, online verification of certifications. The hint here is that these licensing agencies typically are already supporting some type of call-center operation that needs to provide timely verification ... the operation of which can be translated directly into a web site busines service operation.
