At Brigham Young University, we are experimenting with and piloting a Domain of One’s Own experience for students, faculty, staff, and courses, as well as exploring other potential uses. To experience this environment, I have chosen to migrate some of my content to my new blog at flanaganio.local, which Reclaim Hosting hosts.
The primary focus of this experiment is to educate, encourage, and empower students to take control of their digital identity. Instead of placing their content on social media sites, where others dictate how their content is displayed, what security policies exist, and how long it persists, we aim to provide students with a space they can call their own and control the way their content is shared with others of their choice.
However, we also hope to use this environment to implement a personal API for each of our participants. Imagine that when a domain is created and hosted, a subdomain is also created, perhaps api.domain. This URL directs you to an application that implements an API for individuals. This personal API would have resources pertaining to the individual that would be created, retrieved, updated, or deleted using appropriate HTTP methods. These resources would be protected by OAuth, or some other mechanism, allowing the individual the ability to safeguard their information from others while authorizing those they desire to access it.
In the end, perhaps this sort of architecture will result in institutions, like BYU, not having to hold onto individual personal information, but rather asking students, staff, faculty, and others for permission to access the needed information from the individual’s personal API. This would allow individuals to control the use and spread of their information, reducing the amount of personal information the institution needs to protect. As a CIO, I particularly appreciate that last bit.
Others are working in this area, including Kin Lane, Jim Groom, Phil Windley, and others. If you want to participate, learn more, contribute or listen in, please join us at the next University API and Domains (UAD) conference to be held again in early 2016.