Distributed Identity Management for Semantic Entities

Falko Schönteich, Andreas Kasten, Ansgar Scherp

Abstract: We propose semDIM, a novel approach for Semantic Distributed Identity Management based on a Semantic Web architecture. For the first time, semDIM provides a framework for a distributed definition and management of entities such as persons being part of an organization, groups, and roles across namespaces. It is suitable for informal, i.e., social networks, as well as for professional networks such as cross-organizational collaborations. Beyond the capabilities of existing Identity Management solutions, we allow distributed identifiers and management of groups (consisting of agents and sub-groups) and roles. semDIM uses owl:sameAs as a central property to represent and verify distributed identities via formal reasoning. This concept enables novel functionalities for Distributed Identity Management, as these entities can be referred to, related to each other, as well as be managed across namespaces. Our semDIM approach consists of a modular software architecture, a process model, as well as a set of state-of-the-art DUL-based OWL ontology patterns. We demonstrate our approach by an example implementation that evaluates its functional fitness.