Skip to main content
SearchLoginLogin or Signup

People and Skills Specification: BETA

This publication is NOT the current working draft for the PSS WG.

Published onMar 27, 2023
People and Skills Specification: BETA
·
history

You're viewing an older Release (#3) of this Pub.

  • This Release (#3) was created on May 10, 2023 ()
  • The latest Release (#4) was created on Jul 31, 2023 ().

The Internet of Production Alliance People and Skills Specification (PSS) BETA Release

License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)

Contents

  1. Introduction: provides a broad overview of the background, scope and aim of this standard.

  2. Scope: provides information on the specification audience, application, and overarching authorisation workflow.

  3. Jargon Buster: provides definitions to key terms used through the specification document.

  4. Specification for People and Skills Mutual Recognition: provides the metadata schema for PSS, including fieldname(s), purpose, rules, and examples.

  5. Governance of this Specification: provides guidance on how the PSS will be developed and maintained.

  6. References: List of citations for resources used during development of the PSS beta release.

1. Introduction

Emerging technology is already transforming the way we produce goods, services, and experiences, allowing more people to join in the design and fabrication process. To build a sustainable system that is globally networked and locally executed, a combination of open infrastructure, information, processes, and data specifications needs to be developed and shared openly with the global community. Providing makers, makerspaces, SME and start-ups with resources and access to networks and open standards and tools, makes rapid collaboration, new revenue streams, and sustainable business models more achievable for entrepreneurial stakeholders in a global manufacturing ecosystem.

The Internet of Production Alliance (IoPA) is working to establish five families of open infrastructure that enable anyone, everywhere, to participate in production.

Currently, this work is centered around five families of digital infrastructure which cover the essential ingredients needed to make anything:

  1. Designs & Documentation (Open Know-How/OKH)

  2. Machines & Tools (Open Know-Where/OKW)

  3. People & Skills - currently under development; BETA released

  4. Materials & Components - research and scoping underway

  5. Contracts & Business Models - research and scoping underway

Initiatives emerge and are driven by collective community interest in the exploration of common focus areas, either within one or across multiple infrastructure families. The IoPA is currently working with community stakeholders on continued development of the first two of the five families listed below.

1.1. Designs & Documentation: Open Know-How (OKH)

The goal of this data specification is to provide a mechanism for exchanging know-how for making things, in alignment with the Open Source Hardware Definition [1]. This is done so by providing a schema for providing metadata in a consistent format and a mode of information exchange enabling indexing and discovery of open hardware projects by stakeholders.  With the understanding that know-how can be tacit, the OKH data specification is concerned with know-how represented in documentation, drawings, digital models, source code and other media. Community discussion and support of continued development of OKH is supported by engagement platforms provided by the IoPA, which include contributions from global stakeholders on updates to the specification, potential use cases, and general knowledge sharing related to OKH.

1.2. Machines & Tools: Open Know-Where (OKW)

The goal of the OKW data specification is to provide a mechanism for the discovery and exchange of the location of manufacturing capabilities and where to get something made. The aim is to develop the enabling technologies and infrastructures in support of a global move to distributed and local manufacturing, by providing a schema for quick and simple documentation of manufacturing capabilities, manufacturing facilities, machinery, and tooling. Community discussion and support of continued development of OKH is supported by engagement platforms provided by the IoPA, which include contributions from global stakeholders on updates to the specification, potential use cases, and general knowledge sharing related to OKW.

1.3. Introducing the People and Skills Specification (PSS): BETA

The central focus of the People and Skills Specification (PSS) is to create a shared understanding of the explicit, implicit, tacit, and procedural knowledge necessary for individuals to make things. This specification is also intentionally designed to provide a framework for sharing those skills and experiences with potential employers, fellow makers, and educational institutions via the Open Badge System Framework [3]; this specification can also be used as a stand-alone, should an open badging system not be an option.

Building on OKH and OKW, which address how we share knowledge for making things, and where things can be made, the PSS addresses the third critical component of knowledge-sharing for the reproducability of items - who can provide the expertise for making things. This is done with a focus on the experience and skills necessary for production, and how those skills and experiences can be shared. By establishing a shared understanding and vocabulary surrounding the production of goods, we have the potential to open up networked conversations between experts in digital and physical fabrication.

PSS provides the potential for broadening a global network of experts, helping place the possibility of product prototyping into the hands of community members, which means increased potential for rapid collaboration, and increased overall quality of the products being produced. Increased recognition of expertise and awareness of who has this expertise also means that products being made are manufactured with fresh community knowledge and skill, which means better products for our society. The increasingly diverse engineering talent that will now have the potential to recognize local, specialized knowledge, will appeal to industry and larger manufacturing companies, which supports individual makers seeking industry jobs.

1.4. Research and Community Scoping for the Beta Release

The PSS beta release is based on an emergent framework as defined in grounded theory (GT) methodology, which is an inductive paradigm that provides a foundation for targeted information gathering [2]. Assertions and the framework for the PSS beta standard have been derived from the following research and community scoping activities (listed chronologically by order of execution):

  • Extensive desk research, including document analysis and literature review, the results of which were used to establish questions for community interviews;

  • 25 semi-structured interviews with global maker community members, focusing on passport program developers/leads, the analysis of which informed targeted survey questions;

  • 96 survey responses from global maker community members, focusing on makerspace leaders and targeted questions regarding nomadic maker practices, preferences, and the utility of a maker passport.

1.5. Beta Release and Subsequent Versioning

The People and Skills specification has been developed by building upon existing badging initiatives and educational and mutual recognition accords. Extensive research and community scoping has been conducted, leading to the preliminary authoring of a PSS beta release.

Following the beta release of PSS, a working group is being convened to collaboratively co-author the next version. Working Group members:

Collaborative review and technical authoring will continue with a v1.0 projected release date of June 15, 2023.

2. Scope

This specification provides a mechanism for verification within mutual recognition and microcredentialing systems for purposes of:

  1. Identifying WHAT expertise is needed

  2. Confirming WHO has the expertise

  3. HOW this expertise is communicated

While the PSS provides potential for some of the capabilities listed below now, the broader PSS Initiative provides the infrastructure for reaching some of the farther-reaching goals listed below:

  1. Identifying WHAT expertise is needed: this specification provides standardized, yet flexible, categories of skills and experience which can be mapped to specific types of making and project work, allowing for a shared understanding of what a certain type of training or experience means across organizations, consortia, or other larger networks. For example, production spaces have varying rules for providing access to use their spaces for production, based on what machinery, materials, or chemicals are in the space. With this specification, an organization can customize requirements for different levels of access.

  2. Confirming WHO has the expertise: this specification supports the creation of a user record for the individual maker, that can easily be integrated into preexisting systems that catalog or track organization membership rosters, whether connected to a public, private, or academic institution. The structure of this user record is also designed with data sovereignty in mind; an individual maker will be able to take their user record, download it, and take it with them - it does not have to be attached to any organization that “owns” it.

  3. HOW this expertise is communicated: this specification is created with the flexibility to serve as a stand-alone form or, using the provided tooling, could be used to fill out an online form that exports a JSON file that can be integrated into an open badging system. This allows for:

    1. A makerspace to create a form tailored to their organizational needs to keep local records of users who have been credentialed to access certain spaces and/or specialized equipment;

    2. An educational institution to establish a microcredentialing (using open badges) system to communicate which workshops, classes, or other skills-based training has successfully been completed by an individual;

    3. An individual to have the capability to communicate their credentials to a potential employer, via professional or social media platforms, or as a stand-alone file export.

While this specification is designed to be interoperable with common open badging standard protocols, it can also be used without internet connectivity to maintain paper records in-house using the provided template in section 4.10, for makerspaces that either do not have the infrastructure to support an open badging system, or require manual record load for maintaining local records.

2.1. Use Cases and Ongoing R&D

2.1.2. Immediate Use Case: Navigating a Pan-African Ecosystem

By design, the PSS could be adopted and adapted by anyone who wishes to have a credentialing system which enables nomadic makers to travel between makerspaces, such as that being developed as a part of the mAkE project. This navigation will be enabled by using a digital 'maker passport,' the preliminary criteria for which has been defined by maker community members during the research process preceding the PSS BETA release. You can read more about this project, sponsored by the European Horizon 2020 Programme here: https://makeafricaeu.org/about.

2.1.3. Ongoing R&D

IoP initiatives emerge and are driven by collective community interest in the exploration of common focus areas, either within one or across multiple infrastructure families. The PSS Initiative, in addition to providing the infrastructure for reaching some of the farther-reaching goals for PSS, also provides many avenues for contributing to the iterative improvement of the specification, as well as the development of tooling in support of implementing at the local level:

2.2 Maker Authorization and Credentialing Workflow

Based on preliminary research and community scoping, a workflow for a maker passport has been developed:

Image provides a pathway visualisation of an authorization pathway, including simple logos, text, and directional arrows.

Workflow visualisation for mutual recognition system: People and Skills Standard (PSS)

Adapted from Open Badges 2.0 workflow [9]

This system is reliant on two main points of verification:

  1. Passport holder (maker) identity

  2. Passport holder (maker) credentials

2.3. Maker Identity

The identity of passport holders can be established via organizational affiliations, or preexisting verification processes (OpenID, OAuth2, etc.).

2.4. Maker Credentials

What a maker needs to prove they know and what experiences they need to provide proof of prior to being allowed entree into a makerspace within the ecosystem.

3. Jargon Buster

Terms and definitions used throughout the specification.

3.1 Displayers:

Website or web application that provides tools for displaying PSS credentials.

3.2 Earner:

User/resources owner who earns a credential from an issuer.

3.3 IdP (identity provider):

Performs authentication and passes the user's identity and authorization level to the service provider.

3.4 Issuer:

Organization, guild, or individual that grants credentials to a user in the form of a digital badge or other format.

3.5 IssueInstant:

Timestamp to indicate the time a new identification number/ID was generated.

3.6 LTI:

Learning Tools Interoperability

3.7 OAuth (open authorization):

An open standard for access delegation, commonly used as a way for internet users to grant websites or applications access to their information on other websites but without giving them the passwords.

3.8 OpenID Connect:

Built on the OAuth 2.0 protocol and uses an additional JSON Web Token (JWT), called an ID token, to standardize areas that OAuth 2.0 leaves up to choice, such as scopes and endpoint discovery. It is specifically focused on user authentication and is widely used to enable user logins on consumer websites and mobile apps.

3.9 SP (service provider):

Trusts the identity provider and authorizes the given user to access the requested resource. Associated with EntityID (unique identifier)

3.10 User:

An individual maker who may be issued a maker passport or learning credential.

4. Specification for People and Skills Mutual Recognition

4.1 Introduction

This section specifies a mechanism for the verification of passport holders (makers) by authorised issuers. Building on foundational schemas in open badge system frameworks [3], this specification provides the conceptual framework for mutual recognition within a functional badging system; it does not provide a schema for the functional badging system itself, though multiple open badging systems are referenced.

Any infrastructure designed and developed to support an open digital badging system should support [3, p10]:

4.1.1. Independent-Source Badge Issue

Similar to assessment design and execution, badges can be issued by authorities, course organizers, peers, the system or each learner. Within the open badge infrastructure, it is important to allow for badges from many independent sources across the Web and across each learner's experience to ensure that the badge system supports all of their learning.

4.1.2. Badge Collection

Badges should be collected in a way that ties them to the learner identity and enables use across websites or experiences. Learners can get badges from many environments or experiences, through many different types of assessments, and store them in a single badge collection as they go. Each badge should carry comprehensive metadata to communicate information about the issuance of the badge, provide a link back to the learner’s work as demonstration and justification of the badge and enable authentication back to the issuer. The learner should also have an interface to their badge collection to manage badges and set privacy controls.

4.1.3. Badge Display

The value of badges increases further when learners have control over where to display them across audiences and contexts. The learner should be able to control which badges are available for which audience and share subsets of badges with selected audiences, ranging from target groups or networks, to the open web. Further, the infrastructure should allow learners to add badges to any external website or environment that supports badge display, including personal websites, such as blogs, and social networking environments such as LinkedIn or Facebook. Finally, these display sites should be able to authenticate the badge to ensure that the badge was issued to this particular user.

This specification provides recommendations for display platforms based on community scoping research; for application of this specification within an open badging infrastructure contextualized for a specific use case, additional user research must be conducted to ensure that the selections for badge display are in alignment with user community needs. The power of credentialing resides in not only the authorising entity, but also the interoperability of the issued credential with platforms that are relevant and meaningful to the earner.

Mandatory and recommended provisions are made along with other fields that are defined. A template is provided that can be used to aid in the development of a digital maker passport, or could be used to input data manually, for makers and organisations that are not yet a part of a digital network or digital recognition system.

4.2 Method of Information Exchange: The PSS User Record

The PSS User Record accompanies the officially and unofficially credentialed skills and experiences that are documented in structured or unstructured formats. The purpose is to allow automated indexings of key properties about the user and to identify and link to the associated issuing clients.

The user record shall be used to define user record changes over time.

The user record should be updated when any credential status or user descriptor data changes.

4.3 Structure of the Output as a File

4.3.1. Format

Where the user record is contained in a file, it will be JSON [4].

Note: JSON is selected because not only is it a structured data format, but it can also be used directly in client-side coding. It is for this reason that JSON is the predominant format for digital badging systems.

JSON requires Unicode [5]; while UTF-16 may also be used for character encoding, the UTF-8 [6] default is recommended [7].

4.3.2 Filename

The file containing the user record shall begin with “pss”.

The file extension shall be “.json”.

Example: “pss.json”

The user’s name may be included in the filename, prefixed with a hyphen.

Example: “pss-user-name.json”

4.4. Displaying Output Information on a Web Page

JSON format is the predominant format used to store data in a structured way. JSON data can easily be displayed in an HTML page using JavaScript in the form of tables and lists [8].

Example: HTML Table with data retrieved as JSON

const dbParam = JSON.stringify({table:"customers",limit:20});
const xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xmlhttp.onload = function() {
   myObj = JSON.parse(this.responseText);
   let text = "<table border='1'>"
   for (let x in myObj) {
     text += "<tr><td>" + myObj[x].name + "</td></tr>";
   }
   text += "</table>"
   document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = text;
}
xmlhttp.open("POST", "json_demo_html_table.php");
xmlhttp.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-
urlencoded");
xmlhttp.send("x=" + dbParam);

4.5. Output Metadata

4.5.1. User Record Unique Identifier

Fieldname: id

Purpose: Assignment of a unique identifier will make user records easier to locate, also allowing for easier differentiation between versions.

Format: UUID [9]

"id" : "a3cdb71f-d1c8-4867-90af-d7dd6c6391a8"

Rules: Required.

4.5.2. Date User Record Created

Fieldname: date_created

Purpose: Identifies date user record was originally created.

Format: YYYY-MM-DD [10]

"date_created" : "2022-09-27 18:00:00.000"

Rules: Required.

4.5.3. Date User Record Last Updated

Fieldname: last_updated_date

Purpose: Identifies date user record was last updated.

Format: YYYY-MM-DD

"last_updated_date" : "2022-09-27 18:00:00.00Rules: Required.

4.5.4. Record Issuer

Fieldname: record_issuer

Purpose: Identifies the entity issuing the passport.

Format: Object.

Rules: Required.

4.5.4.1. Name of organization issuing maker passport

Fieldname: name

Purpose: Identifies the entity issuing the passport.

Format: Text.

Rules: Required.

4.5.4.2. Primary contact at issuing organization

Fieldname: primary_contact

Purpose: Identifies the primary contact at the entity issuing the passport.

Format: Object.

Rules: Recommended.

4.5.4.2.1. Primary contact name

Fieldname: name

Purpose: Provide the email of the primary contact at the entity issuing the passport.

Format: Text.

Rules: Subfields required if object is present.

4.5.4.2.2. Primary contact email

Fieldname: email

Purpose: Provides the email of the primary contact at the entity issuing the passport.

Format: Text.

Rules: Subfields required if object is present.

Example record_issuer and primary_contact objects

"record_issuer" : {
  "name" : "IOPA",
  "primary_contact": {
    "name" : "Sarah Hutton",
    "email" : "[email protected]"
  }
}

4.6. User Properties

Fieldname: user

Purpose: Contains user metadata.

Format: Object.

Rules: Required.

4.6.1. User Name

Fieldname: name

Purpose: States the first name (forename) and last name (surname) of the user to which the passport is issued.

Format: Text; last name, first name.

Rules: Required.

4.6.2. User Email

Fieldname: email

Purpose: Email address of the passport holder.

Format: Text; [email protected]

Rules: Required.

4.6.3. User Authentication

Fieldname: openid_token

Purpose: Authentication via OpenID Connect [11] provides a way to prove that an end user controls an Identifier. It does this without the Relying Party needing access to end user credentials such as a password or to other sensitive information such as an email address. OpenID Connect performs similarly to OpenID 2.0 [12], but does so in a way that is API-friendly, and integrates OAuth 2.0 capabilities directly into the protocol.

Format: OpenID Connect Token URL

${baseURL}/v1/token

Rules: Required. Recommended apps for provision of OAuth token: GitHub, Facebook, Twitter, Google.

4.6.4. User Affiliations

To identify related consortia, organizations, guilds, and other networks which can lend to validation of experience and skills held by user.

Fieldname: affiliations

Purpose: To identify any consortia, organizations, guilds, and other networks which can lend to validation of experience and skills held by user.

Format: Text.

Rules: Recommended; if affiliations provide a badge issuance token and/or API badge identifier, enter badge tokens in 4.7.1. Certifications.

4.6.5. User Photo

Fieldname: image

Purpose: For visual identification of user when entering a space within the maker ecosystem.

Format: URL

Rules: Recommended.

Example of User Properties Object

"user" : {
    "name" : "Sarah Hutton"
    "email" : "[email protected]"
    "openid_token" : "token",
    "affiliations" : [
        {
          "name" : "IOPA"
          "primary_contact" : {
            "name" : "Andrew Lamb"
            "email" : "[email protected]"
          }
        },
        {
          "name" : "OSHWA"
        }
    ],
    "image" : "https://iopa.org/about/sarah.png"
}

4.7. Certification Properties

Those with digital badges that are compliant with the Open Badge specification [13] that are authorized/signatory compliant in alignment with

4.7.1. Certifications

Fieldname: certifications

Purpose: Serves as a container for all issued certifications, badges, skills training evidence.

Format: Array.

Rules: Required.

4.7.2 Digital Badges

Purpose: Identifies digital badges earned by passport holder.

Format: Object.

Rules: Required if entering badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

4.7.2.1. Badge name

Fieldname: badge_name

Purpose: Identifies earned digital badge by name.

Format: Text.

Rules: Required if entering badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

4.7.2.2. Badge criteria

Fieldname: badge_criteria

Purpose: Typically located in the description section of an open badge, this information describes what knowledge has been gained/skills have been proven for earner to receive badge.

Format: Text.

Rules: Required if entering in badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

4.7.2.3. Badge URL

Fieldname: badge_url

Purpose: Location/hosting site of earned badge.

Format: URL

4.7.2.4. Issue date

Fieldname: badge_issue_date

Purpose: Date badge was issued to earner.

Format: YYYY-MM-DD

Rules: Required if entering in badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

4.7.2.5. Issuer

Fieldname: issuer

Purpose: Location/hosting site of earned badge.

Format: Object

Rules: Required if entering in badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

4.7.2.6. Recipient

Fieldname: badge_recipient

Purpose: Identifies the user who earned the badge.

Format: Object; see 4.6 User Properties

Rules: Required if entering in badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

"certifications" : [
  {
    "badge_name" : "health and safety badge",
    "badge_criteria" : "health and safety training, badge in first aid",
    "badge_url" : "https://badges/io/hasbadge",
    "badge_issue_date" : "2023-02-14",
    "issuer" : {
      "name" : "OpenBadgeHaus",
      "primary_contact" : {
        "name" : "Bill Badger",
        "email" : "[email protected]"
      }
    },
    "badge_recipient" : {
      "name" : "Sarah Hutton",
      "email" : "[email protected]"
  }}
]
4.7.2.7. Alignment (with specific standards/accrediting bodies)

Fieldname: badge_alignment

Purpose: Identifies related standards with which alignment is pertinent/meaningful to the passport issuer (need to pick a new work for passport issuer!).

Format: Text.

Rules: Recommended if entering in badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

4.7.2.8. Additional information about the Issuer

Fieldname: issuer_additional_info

Purpose: Provides additional information about the organization that issued the badge, such as authorized issuer platform status [28].

Format: Text.

Rules: Recommended if entering in badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

4.7.2.9. Expiration Date

Fieldname: expiration_date

Purpose: Identifies the expiration date of the badge as identified by issuer.

Format: YYYY-MM-DD

Rules: Recommended if entering in badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

4.7.2.10. Badge Evidence

Fieldname: evidence

Purpose: In the case that a badge token or URL is not available for proof of issuance, this field is used to gather information that could serve as supporting evidence that the badge has been earned by the user affiliated with it.

Format: Text.

Rules: Required if entering in badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

4.7.2.11. Revocation/Revocation Reason

Fieldname: revocation

Purpose: Identifies when a badge has been revoked and for what reason.

Format: Text.

Rules: Recommended if entering in badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

4.7.2.12. Tags

Fieldname: badge_tags

Purpose:

Format: Array.

Rules: Required if entering in badges. If Open Badge-compliant badges have not been earned by user, this field is not applicable.

"certifications" : [
  {
    "badge_name" : "health and safety badge",
    "badge_criteria" : "health and safety training, badge in first aid",
    "badge_url" : "https://badges/io/hasbadge",
    "badge_issue_date" : "2023-02-14",
    "issuer" : {
      "name" : "OpenBadgeHaus",
      "primary_contact" : {
        "name" : "Bill Badger",
        "email" : "[email protected]"
      }
    },
    "badge_recipient" : {
      "name" : "Sarah Hutton",
      "email" : "[email protected]"
    },
    "badge_alignment" : "https://badges.io/hasbadge/alignment",
    "expiration_date" : "2024-12-31",
    "issuer_additional_info": "Also issues paper certificates",
    "badge_tags": ["health", "safety"]
  }
]

4.9 Language and Translation

Language shall be declared as defined in BCP 47 [14], which prescribes the format for identifying languages as the ISO 639 [15] codes for representing languages followed by the ISO 3166 [16] code for the region in which the language is used. Use the Alpha-2 code for each where available.

4.10 User Record Template

ETA April 2023

%PSS user record 0.1

5. Governance of This Specification

Changes will be discussed with community members and voted on during meetings of the People and Skills Working Group. 

Proposers should consult the Working Group prior to proposing changes so that members can contribute to the development of proposals.

All proposed changes will be shared on the community forum for review prior to Working Group meeting discussions. This can increase the likelihood of the group accepting changes to the specification.

6. References

[1] Open Source Definition, Open Source Hardware Association, https://www.oshwa.org/definition

[2] Socio-Technical Grounded Theory for Software Engineering, Hoda, R (2022), 10.1109/TSE.2021.3106280

[3] An Open Badge System Framework, Peer 2 Peer University & The Mozilla Foundation, in collaboration with The MacArthur Foundation, http://bit.ly/badgepaper4

[4] JSON Data Interchange Syntax Standard, ECMA International, https://www.ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-404/

[5] The Unicode® Standard 15.0.0, https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode15.0.0/

[6] UTF-8 encoding table and Unicode characters, https://www.utf8-chartable.de/

[7] Choosing and applying a character encoding, W3C, https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-choosing-encodings

[8] JSON HTML, W3C School, https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_json_html.asp

[9] RFC 4122: A Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace, https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4122

[10] ISO 8601: Time and Date Format Standard, https://www.iso.org/iso-8601-date-and-time-format.html

[11] OpenID Connect 1.0 Specification, https://openid.net/connect/

[12] OpenID Authentication 2.0 - Final, https://openid.net/specs/openid-authentication-2_0.html

[13] 1EdTech/openbadges-specification, https://github.com/1EdTech/openbadges-specification

[14] BCP 47 Tags for Identifying Languages, IETF, https://tools.ietf.org/html/bcp47

[15] Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages, Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php

[16] Country Codes – ISO 3166, ISO, https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html

Comments
39
?
Lawrence Kincheloe:

Issuers should also be able to earn credentials, creating a feedback loop or internal review system of how credentials are being used and why an issuer should care about the people who it issues credentials to

?
Lawrence Kincheloe:

this could also be codified into a rulebook which can live in a space and can link to a version of the online web site

?
Lawrence Kincheloe:

I am curious about real world use cases for this methodology.

In one instance, how skills and credentials age needs to be addressed.

How skills and credentials can be acquired through non accredited learning sources.

How issuers are verified, how hosts are verified. This is both a bottleneck and a point of failure that can be addressed with acreddidating issuers and hosts

?
Lawrence Kincheloe:

We really need a “List of expectations” of what these accreditation are intended to do.

For example,

The holder of this accredidation:
Has demonstrated their ability to work safely in the space

Is who they say they are and are consistent with the behavioral norms of our organizaion

Is in good standing with social and financial obligations to maintain the longivity and sustainability of the spaces they occupy

etc.

?
Lawrence Kincheloe:

It adds an extra burden to have training that must take place in designated locations which adds complexity and cost.

Another solution would be a series of skill display tests that can be performed to showcase the abilities of the applicant to a new space. An example, would be a “weld together a bench” or “solder together this badge”. The items and skill demonstrations could be area specific and could be a valuable source of labor and skills in a community.

?
Lawrence Kincheloe:

This is a rapidly evolving space as the problems with passwords and authorization tokens become established. The convenience vs. security dilemma comes to mind.

?
Lawrence Kincheloe:

This should include credentialing for Industry as well as for government. An industry may want to credential a person to be skilled in fulfilling warranty repairs, such as iPhone screen repairs, and the Government may want to credential health and safety service industries such as beauty parlors, fitness coaches, etc. The scope should be broad enough to allow for external usages and extension.

?
Lawrence Kincheloe:

Does the scope of this project include a distributed federated database, or a centralized database of all badges? I have a hard time believing a central specification can cover all forms of human expression as badges and not endlessly require bridging between disciplines. For example, sewing in the medical field for stitches and sewing in the garment industry. Two badges? two categories? Any overlap?

?
Lawrence Kincheloe:

Traditional Industry may not be the best target for this push. This movement fits more in line with flexible manufacturing where speed and flexibility are more important than cost reduction and volume production. We’re also talking about up-skilling workers for the jobs of tomorrow, which are highly automated and require critical thinking and creative problem solving as complexity increases. This kind of global knowledge base in manufacturing will be hugely important as the advantages of open source hardware projects for manufacturing machines mature and create whole communities around those projects.

Sarah Hutton:

For mAkE - include the recommendation to mAkE - you need to come to a shared understanding of credentials that are accepted across your consortium, and this really comes from the subsequent work packages follow, which focus on education.

Sarah Hutton:

If the makerspace is not a credential issuer - that needs to be a part of the conversation.

Sarah Hutton:

Use case documentation as part of the overall package would be useful

Sarah Hutton:

Governance surrounding the support of use should be integrated here - look to other pubs (OKW governance) https://standards.internetofproduction.org/pub/4we6unlk/draft

?
Nathan Parker:

A useful parallel, which we could borrow the language for, is “Authentication and Authorization.”

Basically, a system needs to know 1: that you are who you say you are (authentication), and that the person you say you are is allowed to do the thing you want to do (authorization).

It’s not inherently better framing than the one written here, but it may be useful to borrow language and concepts from mature examples of this sort of thing.

?
Nathan Parker:

I’m not sure this assertion is supported by evidence, nor does it seem self-evident. As much as it is emotionally true, I would be cautious about expressing it this way in this context

?
Barbara Schack:

I get confused by the jump to 2.2, 2.3, 2.4.
Are these placeholders that will be expanded on, or is there a step that I’m not seeing that groups these chapters under 2 - scope?

?
Barbara Schack:

implementation?

?
Barbara Schack:

Same comments as in the first paragraph of 1.3:
- employer is too narrow I think, I see it restricted to employment contracts, not purchasing, and other contract forms.
- the receiving end of use case 3 is to find that person. It is implied in “professional or social media platforms“. Can we find a phrase explicitly that plants the idea of “any platform in which people seek someone with those skills“.

?
Barbara Schack:

“an online form“ => “online forms”

?
Lawrence Kincheloe:

This always needs to be backstopped by a physical implementation. It should be part of the JSON standard to be exported as printable media that has the ability to link to the digital form. Think QR code or 2D barcodes, tiny URL’s, etc.

?
Barbara Schack:

+1

?
Barbara Schack:

Learning from previous working group struggles:
The working group should have a conversation about naming, and whether it is v1.0 or RFC or other, depending on usual practice in this field. And this conversation and the decision would be documented somewhere.

?
Barbara Schack:

just “co-author“.

?
Barbara Schack:

If this were wikipedia, I’d expect a comment here saying “source/reference?“.

We can also decide to be fine with assumptions/knowledge from our collective experience and see this as common sense.

Or formulate it as a vision/assumption/aspiration/value.

Or find a source that backs this up.

?
Barbara Schack:

there are probably sources in the IPCC report on climate adaptation

?
Barbara Schack:

From here and in the next paragraphs, the language changes from “maker“, “making“, “badge system“ (OSH and education vocabulary) to manufacturing vocabulary (production, goods, experts).

I think the later is broader. I place a comment to see if this should/could be harmonised across the document.

?
Barbara Schack:

This makes for a good sentence flow.

Technically speaking, it addresses how we share knowledge on how to make things.

Or even: what knowledge is needed to know how something is made.

I’m not sure it is crucial here but posting the thought.

?
Barbara Schack:

“a framework for sharing those skills (…) with“

Can we find a way to show this as a 2 way communication.

Something like: “a framework for sharing those skills (…) and finding those who have them”

It’s to share the information out. So that is can be found by those seeking the information. This is implicit of course. An explicit formulation would help someone reading this for the first time to understand both sides of the use case / both use cases.

I also understand that, just with OKH manifests or OKW based datasets, using this standard only creates the data output, and does not in and of itself the tool for sharing nor finding this data. That would be tooling that leverages that data.

So we’re indeed only talking about “a framework for“ and not the tools to actually share/find.

?
Barbara Schack:

Other word needed to reflect the variety of revenue models for someone with skills. Employment, clients, purchasers…. those interested in finding someone with those skills to contract that person in some way. Employment is narrow, will give a think of what could be the broader term.

Sarah Hutton:

Review this reframe to see if it has addressed your previous comments.

Sarah Hutton:

Bring into alignment with IoPA updated language https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOnEJW68=/

?
Barbara Schack:

+1

Sarah Hutton:

REQUIRED object properties for record creation schema:

  • username (typically used for login)

  • id (UUID)

  • personal > description (object)

    • lastName

    • firstName

    • middleName

    • preferredFirstName

    • preferredPronouns

    • email

    • phone

    • mobile phone

    • dateOfBirth

    • countryID

    • city

  • createdDate

  • RECOMMENDED (for discussion if they should be required): object properties for record creation schema:

  • externalSystemId

  • active

  • userGroup (object enum, discussion of group type: community member, makerspace staff/team member, etc)

  • affiliations (‘departments’ - array)

  • preferredContactTypeId (personal > description object)

  • enrollmentDate (option instead of creation)

  • expirationDate

Sarah Hutton:

Optional/for discussion:

"genderIdentity": {

"type": "string",

"minLength": 4,

"default": "user gender identity"

},

+ 1 more...
Sarah Hutton:

For generating uuid: https://github.com/uuidjs/uuid

Sarah Hutton:

And quickstart instructions: https://www.npmjs.com/package/uuid

Will Holman:

I know nothing about code, so the following section is not really comprehensible to me (doesn’t necessarily have to be). I did want to ask (and forgive me if this is not relevant) whether this code section governs how this system would interoperate with folks’ existing membership software systems or databases. In my reading, it’s about how the credentials would be put into code and displayed on the web; I don’t see information on how this code would interact with existing membership softwares or whether it would be a standalone web application.

Will Holman:

Is the content of these varied environments, experiences, and assessments going to be specified elsewhere? Or perhaps a process where a space can submit their existing curricula for approval? We have over 6,000 people in our membership database with some form of safety credential currently. I am just trying to think through how we would grandfather them into this new credentialing process.

?
Nathan Parker:

A big part of any of these efforts is necessarily going to entail migration of legacy data into the new schema, which will suck at least a little.

Shouldn’t be particularly difficult, with the tools available today, but it’s not the kind of thing you can do on a shoestring with volunteers either.

Converting in house spreadsheets isn’t hard, but there will likely be many points where a required field in our spec isn’t required elsewhere so you’ll get null values in places you don’t want them.

Will Holman:

I have no idea what this means ha! The second sentence makes more sense.

Will Holman:

Is there an opportunity within the OKH family of standards to look at design specifications for makerspaces themselves, as opposed to items manufactured within them? There is a dearth of information, or it’s buried in building codes, OSHA manuals, etc. on things like acceptable airborne dust exposure levels, proper clearance for kickback from a table saw, etc. etc. I see the need for essentially an IBC manual specifically for makerspaces.

?
Barbara Schack:

That’s an interesting question! The place to post it to the OKH community and overall IOP Alliance community would be here: https://community.internetofproduction.org/c/okh/5

Sarah Hutton:

Add introductory/executive summary

Sarah Hutton:

Badging becomes critical here.

Sarah Hutton:

Expand here on quality assurance and highlighting/sharing localised expertise.

?
Anna Sera Lowe:

Would be good to make it clear that anyone can be a proposer, and that people joiining the working group is welcomed

Will Holman:

What is the long-term method of standard maintenance? Once launched, who looks after it 10-20 years from now? How do changes then flow through the system once it is established and potentially has thousands or hundreds of thousands of users in it? These may be downstream questions.

?
Anna Sera Lowe:

What about the angle of who can make something, and quality control?

Will Holman:

Similarly, is this standard intended to help makers gain access to industry jobs?

?
Anna Sera Lowe:

It would be helpful if the endnote has a brief explanation of GT as well as the link to the full paper

Will Holman:

I agree with Anna. I am not familiar with the concepts in this whole paragraph (i.e. what is an “inductive paradigm”) and find this language hard to navigate.

+ 1 more...