Person Specs

Not sure if I am barking up the wrong tree.

I note that the introduction to IMS e-Portfolio says, tellingly:
"The IMS ePortfolio specification was created to make ePortfolios interoperable across different systems and institutions. The ePortfolio specification:
* Supports the advancement of lifelong learning important to many government initiatives.
* Makes exchanging portfolios from school to work transitions easier.
* Allows educators and institutions to better track competencies.
* Enhances the learning experience and improves employee development."

The first interest listed as served by IMS e-Portfolio is "government initiatives". The next is the transition to work. The third is "educators and institutions". Only the last item appeals to the individual "user", and then only in part.

Technorati Tags: e-Portfolio

While it might be a good idea if everyone took an active interest in the governance or polity of the institutions of the state and government (local councils, police, parliament, the ministries, the military, the NHS, etc, etc), it is more likely that those with greatest interest in government initiatives will be politicians and other agents of the state. Relatively few end service users will become actively and reflectively engaged. And, although the transition to work is a locus of interest to the individual, the discussion in the field is arguably led by the employers, or by politicians responding to large employer-led initiatives. The competency debate, too, can have many perspectives, one of which is clearly that of the individual: competencies can be learner focused. The telling application, in IMS eP, of portfolios by "educators and institutions" to "better track competencies" suggest, however, a managerial, hierarchical (or communalised) perspective lot a learner focused one.

Given everything by Simon Grant is interesting and his discussion of e-portfolio items, here, is particularly useful for these purposes, and accepting, for the moment, the institution centricism of this specification, what fields do we need, in myWORLD, for personal data? It must not be necessary to reinvent the wheel.

Briefly looking at two items:

• eduPerson
  
• InetOrgPerson

I gather a need for:

• CommonName
  
• NickName
  
• Surname
  
• GivenName
  
• Initials

We will need to include contact information for the CV-type output that will be required.
From a cached Google page of a post by Brett Didier, Information Sciences and Engineering, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, I read:
"The following is a brief summary of the extensions for these two objectclasses to the inetOrgPerson objectclass.
eduPerson extends inetOrgPerson for these attributes:
eduPersonAffiliation
eduPersonNickName
eduPersonOrgDN
eduPersonOrgUnitDN
eduPersonPrimaryAffiliation
eduPersonPrincipalName
country
organizationname

and GridPerson extends inetOrgPerson for these attributes:
country
organizationname
city"

InetOrgPerson LDAP Object Class definition is here.

x.520, here, gives the following:
name ATTRIBUTE ::= {
WITH SYNTAX DirectoryString {ub-name}
EQUALITY MATCHING RULE caseIgnoreMatch
SUBSTRINGS MATCHING RULE caseIgnoreSubstringsMatch
ID id-at-name
}

commonName ATTRIBUTE ::= {
SUBTYPE OF name
WITH SYNTAX DirectoryString {ub-common-name}
ID id-at-commonName
}

surname ATTRIBUTE ::= {
SUBTYPE OF name
WITH SYNTAX DirectoryString {ub-surname}
ID id-at-surname
}

givenName ATTRIBUTE ::= {
SUBTYPE OF name
WITH SYNTAX DirectoryString {ub-name}
ID id-at-givenName
}

initials ATTRIBUTE ::= {
SUBTYPE OF name
WITH SYNTAX DirectoryString {ub-name}
ID id-at-initials
}

generationQualifier ATTRIBUTE ::= {
SUBTYPE OF name
WITH SYNTAX DirectoryString {ub-name}
ID id-at-generationQualifier
}