Current plan is to use a PKI based approach for identification and encryption, plus a separate key per document. We'll probably use LDAP, with replicated servers, for an initial directory server and public key distribution, then move to something like MIT's Touchstone server that supports X.509, OpenID, and Kerberos (and a few others).
A document, and it's document-specific key will initially be distributed, by its author by email - as well as any other channel he/she desires (put it on the web, drop it in a chat session) - it's just a file.
Updates will take the form of Atom elements - which can be distributed in a variety of ways - email, Atom, as files, etc. Initially we're starting to build on eXist (open source XML database that provides AtomPub and Atom interfaces), with replication to avoid a single server. The JavaScript code that creates/distributes an initial document will talk to the server to create a feed and set up a key for it. Down the road we'll provide a distributed-hash-table based distribution mechanism that links documents directly to each other.
Authored Comments
There's been a lot of work on civic participation over the years - a great resource is:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/about/
Current plan is to use a PKI based approach for identification and encryption, plus a separate key per document. We'll probably use LDAP, with replicated servers, for an initial directory server and public key distribution, then move to something like MIT's Touchstone server that supports X.509, OpenID, and Kerberos (and a few others).
A document, and it's document-specific key will initially be distributed, by its author by email - as well as any other channel he/she desires (put it on the web, drop it in a chat session) - it's just a file.
Updates will take the form of Atom elements - which can be distributed in a variety of ways - email, Atom, as files, etc. Initially we're starting to build on eXist (open source XML database that provides AtomPub and Atom interfaces), with replication to avoid a single server. The JavaScript code that creates/distributes an initial document will talk to the server to create a feed and set up a key for it. Down the road we'll provide a distributed-hash-table based distribution mechanism that links documents directly to each other.