Endorsements in #IndieWeb Webmention Badges #OpenBadges

As I show people the simplicity of a webmention badging system they often look to feature parity with the #OpenBadges 2.0 spec.

We begin with a discussion of credibility and authenticity and usually, folks realize that webmention badges create a chain of trust that boils down to two permalinks.

When you stamp something with your URL you stamp it with your name. In many ways webmention badges solves the credibility and identity issue of credentialing better than open badges.

Endorsements

People then turn to the endorsement class added, though with few of no actual examples in the wild, in the #OpenBadges spec. They want to know if a webmention badge could handle a third party endorsement.

For background you can read this piece by Nate and Dan.

Endorse What you Like

In Dan and Nate's example they use a third party accreditation board. We can accomplish feature parity with a like post using just a few words "u-like-of"

In our Badging Tools example let's say Eddie Hinkle is actually a renowned coding boot camp.

He can endorse the badge issued by #IndieWeb.org by publishing a like post.

<a class="u-like-of" href="https://indieweb.org/toolbuilder-badge">https://indieweb.org/toolbuilder-badge</a>

Here is what it looks like parsed:

{
    "items": [
        {
            "type": [
                "h-entry"
            ],
            "properties": {
                "temperature": [
                    "40.88 \u2109"
                ],
                "weather": [
                    "partly-cloudy-day"
                ],
                "author": [
                    "https://eddiehinkle.com"
                ],
                "url": [
                    "https://eddiehinkle.com/2018/12/17/1/like/"
                ],
                "like-of": [
                    "https://indieweb.org/toolbuilder-badge"
                ],
                "bridgy-publish": [
                    "https://brid.gy/publish/twitter",
                    "https://brid.gy/publish/github",
                    "https://fed.brid.gy/"
                ],
                "published": [
                    "2018-12-17T10:00:26-05:00"
                ]
            }
        }
    ],

You need verification! Why not go check the weather in Baltimore the day Eddie published. Yet this would be overkill. Just seeing the like on an h-review should be enough to say Eddie Hinkle endorses this badge.

There is a permalink to the post. This could be added to the ledger when a badge is issued

Endorsements solved.