Trustworthy contacts

[Dave Bird]

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In article <3.0.5.32.20000914065058.0083ccc0@spiritone.com>, Carl
Ellison <cme@acm.org> writes
>At 07:08 PM 9/9/00 +0100, David Hansen wrote:
>>On 9 Sep 00, at 11:12, George Foot wrote:
>>> which has lamentably been seized upon by
>>> energetic but shortsighted interests as a basis for a e-commerce
>>> framework which has been enshrined in law before it has been tested in
>>> practice. 
>>
>>The alternative to a public key system for e-commerce would be a 
>>secret key system. I doubt very much if key management could be done 
>>with such a system.
>
>This is a false comparison.  The flaw in PK systems isn't the cryptography 
>but the human behavior around it.  The use of names, for example, breaks 
>down when the number of named things exceeds 2 raised to the entropy of the 
>names people can effectively use (remember, type accurately, etc.) or, in 
>cases of directory operations (or PKIs), exceeds the square root of that 
>limit because of the birthday paradox.

 I would have thought these problems would be solved as in the everyday
 world.  I manage a large number of names.  I use a card-file to extend 
 my human memory.  As in computer programming, I also extend the 
 capacity by using separate name-spaces for different purposes e.g.
 email, conventional, perhaps for particular newsgroups or activities.

 The only way I can personally manage a lot of names or documents is
 to split them up hierarchically into the various functions they 
 associate with.


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