XDI

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XDI (XRI Data Interchange) is a generalized, extensible service for sharing, linking, and synchronizing data over the Internet and other data networks using XML documents and XRIs (Extensible Resource Identifiers). The XDI protocol is under development by the OASIS XDI Technical Committee.

The goal of XDI is to enable data from any data source to be identified, described, linked, and synchronized into an active, machine-readable dataweb just as content from any content source can be linked into the human-readable Web today. Along with a single, common XML format for data identification and description, the other key piece of XDI is link contracts that enable control over the authority, security, privacy, and rights of shared data to be expressed in a standard machine-readable format.

This approach to a globally-distributed data sharing network models the real-world mechanism of social contracts and legal contracts that bind civilized people and organizations in the real world today. Thus XDI can be a key enabler of the Social Web. It can also support a new legal concept, Virtual Rights, which are based on a new legal entity, the "virtual identity", and a new fundamental right: "to have or not to have a virtual identity".

Public services based on the OASIS XRI and XDI specifications are under development by an international non-profit organization, XDI.ORG.