(Breaking off from the "IRC meeting" thread.) Credit where it's due: The initial push for Persona in CouchDB came from Randall Leeds.
Dirkjan says to use the hosted include.js file instead of serving it internally. I kind of agree, but note that CouchDB hosts its own JQuery. The priority is not that we match the latest spec, the priority is that people can log in. CouchDB should support disconnected operation. Where possible, we should be able to authenticate without depending on a third-party over the Internet. However I would like to achieve that by various milestones of partial completion. There are two (known) areas where my implementation relies on third parties. 1. The include.js file 2. Validating the client signature over browserid.org/verify At this time, for #1 we host our own copy, and for #2 we outsource to the browserid.org web service, so that is inconsistent. I am thinking of the following milestones: 1. Everything outsourced. * Link to browserid.org for include.js * Call out to browserid.org for signature validation 2. Erlang implementation of signature validation. This will take some R&D, could be a nice newbie project 3. Once Couch can do all the crypto "in-house," provide an option to use either the self-contained implementation or else the Internet-ready implementation. Most Persona logins will be to an Internet server with a gmail.com address. My definition of success: 1. Install CouchDB on a LAN 2. Install a free software identity provider (IdP) 3. Disconnect the LAN 4. Create email accounts 5. Authenticate to CouchDB over BrowserID
