Using RDF Metadata To Enable Access Control on the Social Semantic Web

The structure of the Semantic Web gives users the power to share and collaboratively generate decentralized linked data. In many cases, though, collaboration requires some form of authentication and authorization to ensure the security and integrity of the data being generated. Traditional authorization systems that rely on centralized databases are insufficient in this scenario, since they rely on the existence of a central authority that is not available on the Semantic Web. In this paper, we present a scalable system that allows for decentralized user authentication and authorization. The system described supports per-document access control via an RDF metadata file containing an access control list (ACL). A simple interface allows authorized users to view and edit the RDF ACL directly in a Web browser. The system allows users to efficiently manage read and write access to linked data without a centralized authority, enabling a collaborative authoring environment suited to the Semantic Web.