Individual profile
First published on April 10, 2012, see original doc.
Individual profiles constitute an important module of the OVN Infrastructure. They are a digital environment that aggregates information and data about Agents.
Associations
It can be understood as an avatar, and as digital identity of an agent. It is a socio-economic profile, containing data about social and economic activity. It must be composable and may contain information about
- roles
- reputation
- contributions to True commons, Projects or Ventures (economic activity) and commitments to processes, activities.
- artifacts (content, data, designs, prototypes, etc.] produced by the affiliate
- social relations (connections with other agents), which can be seen as social capital, may be shared in context / processes, part of the wealth structure of a network.
- networks affiliations
- credentials (or access rights, including access to governance, to resources, etc.).
- available assets (under private property regime that can be shared under certain conditions), part of the wealth structure of the network
- needs and wants or desires (can be used in markets that match needs and wants)
Individual profiles must provide a window into the past of the affiliate and at the same time can be used as a predictive tool, ex. to judge if a future action or relation would be beneficial.
The individual profile can even have agency in the digital world. It can be AI-enhanced to act on behalf of the real agent in some circumstances, sign contracts based on predefined rules, etc.
Profiles play an important role in self-organization. They allow other agents and automated processes to evaluate an agent with respect to an action/process.
The information about affiliations can be used by agents and bots in the context of a project / venture to assess the organic reach into other organizational contexts, beyond the immediate zone of influence of the context. This allows surfacing of a new form of network wealth, its influence or degree of connectivity with other networks within the ecosystem, provided by the number of relations extending from the context network to other networks, through agents. Moreover, this can also provide visibility into the viability of the entire ecosystem, provided by the density of the web of connections between sub-networks through cross-pollinating agents, which is another form of ecosystemic wealth.
Profiles can also be extended to self-owning resources that operate as DAOs. For example, a shared car that owns itself can have a profile, providing information about its viability, usage, location, physical characteristics, etc.
Profiles should also contain Reputation.
Design considerations
The individual profile can be implemented as an aggregator of data stored in different places. The data is structured in a standard way to become portable and interoperable with other modules of the infrastructure. Thus, the individual profile is more than an account to a service, containing data stored at the service location (centralized), such as a Facebook account. See also the page on identity.
Properties
The OVN model defines the individual profile as "a digital environment that aggregates information and data about Agents.
- Composable (see above): can contain roles, reputation, contributions, artifacts, social relations, network affiliations, credentials, available assets, needs/wants.
- Has a standard format: portable across contexts.
- Non-transferable: one option is see Proof-of-Personhood, see also soul-bound tokens or SBT)
- Portable: An individual can participate in more than one OVN simultaneously. For example, it enables the individual to transport his/her reputation and credentials from one cluster of economic activities (one value network) to another.
- Owner-controlled: under the control of the affiliate/agent with respect to what is shared, with whom, for what purpose, and for how long. But crucially: some parts are write-protected — "applications can write data about contributions, roles, and reputation, which cannot be deleted by the affiliate in question." This is exactly what the NDO implements with immutable Person entries and private-but-signed PPRs. The profile owner cannot delete their contribution history, but controls what they reveal.
- Predictive: can be used as a predictive tool, to judge if a future action or relation would be beneficial."
- Agency-extended: the individual profile can even have agency in the digital world. It can be AI-enhanced to act on behalf of the real agent in some circumstances, sign contracts based on predefined rules."
- Requires an authentication mechanism.
- Is sibyl resistant.
The NDO splits what should be the individual profile across at least four separate concepts: Person, PrivatePersonData, ReputationSummary, and PersonRole. These are correct building blocks but lack the composable aggregation layer that would make the profile a genuine OVN individual profile.
Agent profile and network wealth
This is something not present in most technical systems: network affiliations as a form of organisational wealth. The information about affiliations can be used to assess the organic reach into other organisational contexts, beyond the immediate zone of influence of the context. This allows surfacing of a new form of network wealth, its influence or degree of connectivity with other networks within the ecosystem, provided by the number of relations extending from the context network to other networks, through agents.
An agent who participates in multiple OVNs is a bridge node, a carrier of information, trust, and potential collaboration across network boundaries. This agent's profile is not just a personal record; it is a piece of the network's connective tissue. Making this visible makes the network's resilience and reach legible.
The NDO must provide access to a social graph and multi-network affiliation model. An agent is either in this network or not. The generic NDO should model the OVN's insight that agents are simultaneously nodes in multiple overlapping networks, and that this multi-membership is itself a form of value.
Praxis
First Individual profile implemented by Sensorica.
Individual profile on the server client NRP-CAS
| Header text | Header text |
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| Photo below shows the individual profile of an affiliate type agent. | |
| Photo below shows the individual profile of an organization type agent. |
Composable Profile Aggregator in NDO
A AgentProfile view that composes:
- Person (public identity)
- ReputationSummary (derived from PPRs)
- PersonRole list
- Participation statistics (economic event counts by category)
Capability slot attachments (external credentials, DIDs): This view is not stored as a new entry type, it is computed from existing DHT data. But exposing it as a queryable composite is the key step toward the OVN individual profile model.