Skip to main content
The DONA Foundation is a non-profit organization established in Geneva, Switzerland.

Documents

Documents

Preview not available
DOIP SDK v2.2.0 LICENSE.txt
Digital Object Identifier Resolution Protocol (DO-IRP) Specification, version 3.0
Digital Object Identifier Resolution Protocol (DO-IRP) Specification, version 3.0

DO-IRP is a service protocol for securely creating, updating, maintaining, and accessing a distributed set of identifier records associated with identifiers allotted to digital objects. It is a component of the Digital Object (DO) Architecture and is designed to provide access to protected identifier information for enabling interoperability and for sharing resources over networks such as the Internet.

The Digital Object Identifier Resolution Protocol Specification (version 3.0) provides a detailed description of the protocol, identifier space, data model, service model, and operational model, that may be used to enable centralized or de-centralized, secure identifier resolution and administration in a computational environment such as the Internet.

Preview not available
DOIPv2.1.0SDK

The DONA Foundation is pleased to announce version 2.1.0 of the DOIP protocol implementation.

Summary of Board Minutes July 1-2, 2020
Summary of Board Minutes July 1-2, 2020

Due to the COVID-19 situation, the Annual Meeting 2020 was held as a virtual meeting by videoconference.

Board Members present (by videoconference): Robert E. Kahn (Chair), Gao Xinmin, Antoine Geissbühler, Rashid Ismailov, Ed Pentz, Adama Samassékou, Peter Wittenburg, Steve Wolff and Stefan Eberhard, as well as Ulrich Schwardmann and Xihui Zhen for the second day following their election as new Board members on July 1, 2020.

Also present (by videoconference): Alexander Ntoko, institutional representative of ITU; Patrice Lyons, institutional representative of CNRI; and the DONA Foundation's Executive Director, Christophe Blanchi.  In addition, guests who had participated in the DONA Coordination Group (DONA-CG) meeting, held on June 29 and 30, 2020, were present for most of the Open Sessions of the Board meeting at the invitation of the Chair.

DOIPv2SDKOverview
DOIP SDK v2 - Java Version - Overview

The DOIP Software Development Kit version 2 is intended to be used by Java developers to associate a DOIP version 2 interface to their system of choice. DOIP interface might be associated with Data Repositories and Metadata Registries, among other information systems.

Preview not available
DOIPv2SDKOverview License
Preview not available
DOIPv2SDK

The DONA Foundation is pleased to announce version 2.0.0 of the DOIP protocol implementation.

Summary of Board Minutes October 15-16, 2019
Summary of Board Minutes October 15-16, 2019

Board Members Present: Robert E. Kahn (Chair), Gao Xinmin, Antoine Geissbὒhler, Ed Pentz,
Steve Wolff and Stefan Eberhard; Peter Wittenburg was present by phone for part of the meeting.

Also Present: Alexander Ntoko, institutional representative of ITU; Patrice Lyons, institutional representative of CNRI; the DONA Foundation’s Executive Director, Christophe Blanchi. In addition, guests who had participated in the DONA Coordination Group meeting held from October 13 to 15, 2019, were present for most of the Open Sessions of the Board meeting at the invitation of the Chair.

DOIPV2Spec
Digital Object Interface Protocol Specification, version 2.0

The Digital Object Interface Protocol (DOIP) Specification, version 2.0 specifies a standard way for clients to interact with digital objects (DO's). It is assumed that such DO's are managed by DO Services— which we often refer to as DOIP services in this document —and that the protocol implementation is part of those services. In this context, a DOIP service itself is considered a digital object. By its very nature, a protocol is intended for enabling interaction between one or more other entities running the protocol and thus, in general, to support a specific form of process-to-process interaction in a network environment.

Blocks as digital entities
Blocks as digital entities: A standards perspective

The notion of thoughts, ideas and other information fixed in a tangible medium of expression for purposes of reproducing, displaying or communicating the information to others has its origins in antiquity. Both the information itself and its symbolic expression are purely conceptual entities until fixed in a material object. When an intangible means of expression, in which symbolic logic is represented as or converted to machine-independent data structures in digital form, and structured as digital objects (i.e., digital entities), this implementation may be viewed as the logical equivalent of fixation in a material object; and, in this context, we are viewing a block as a particular way of structuring a digital object, and a blockchain in itself as a digital object that incorporates one or more objects.

Summary of Board Minutes July 5-6, 2018
Summary of Board Minutes July 5-6, 2018

Board Members Present: Robert E. Kahn (Chair), Gao Xinmin, Antoine Geissbühler, Ed Pentz, Peter Wittenburg, Rashid Ismailov, Steve Wolff (on the phone), and Stefan Eberhard.

Also Present: Alexander Ntoko, institutional representative of ITU; Patrice Lyons, institutional representative of CNRI; the DONA Foundation’s Executive Director, Christophe Blanchi. In addition, several guests were present at most of the Board meeting at the invitation of the Chair.

Definition of ‘block’ as a ‘Digital Entity

There is no apparent reason to deviate from the definition of Digital Entity as specified in Recommendation ITU-T X.1255 (9/2013). It is important to adopt neutral terminology in order to avoid confusion in practice. In addition to “block,” there have been many different words, such as “container,” “cryptolope,” “package” or more generally “digital object,” that have been used over the last two decades to identify the concept of a logical entity or data structure that may embody digital information subject to various rights or interests, or in which there is value, that, when processed, may manifest this information incorporated in this form of expression.

Summary of Board Minutes July 6-7, 2017
Summary of Board Minutes July 6-7, 2017

Board Members Present: Robert E. Kahn (Chair), Stefan Eberhard, Gao Xinmin, Antoine Geissbὒhler, Ed Pentz, Adama Samassékou, Peter Wittenburg and Steve Wolff.

Also Present: Alexander Ntoko, institutional representative of ITU; Patrice Lyons, institutional representative of CNRI; DONA Foundation’s Executive Director, Christophe Blanchi; and, as a guest, Vasiliy Dolmatov, technical representative of absent Board member Rashid Ismailov.

 Non Proprietary Status of the DO Architecture
Non Proprietary Status of the DO Architecture

The DONA Foundation (“Foundation”) is aware of assertions made by several parties that the Digital Object Architecture (“DOA” or “DO Architecture”) is proprietary. These assertions are untrue. In late 2016, CNRI also posted a statement about this subject. The responsibility for evolving the DOA was transferred to DONA in 2014 by CNRI, the organization that developed it in the first place.

 Summary of Board Minutes July 5-6, 2016
Summary of Board Minutes July 5-6, 2016

Board Members Present: Robert E. Kahn (Chair), Stefan Eberhard, Gao Xinmin, Antoine Geissbühler, Rashid Ismailov, Ed Pentz, Adama Samassékou, Peter Wittenburg and Stephen Wolff.

Also present were: Alexander Ntoko, representing ITU; Patrice Lyons, representing CNRI. The DONA Foundation’s Executive Director, Christophe Blanchi. In addition, several invited guests were present at most of the meeting at the invitation of Dr. Kahn.

Summary of Board Minutes July 2-3, 2015
Summary of Board Minutes July 2-3, 2015

Board Members Present: Robert E. Kahn (Chair), Xinmin Gao, Antoine Geissbühler, Stefan Eberhard, Norman Paskin, Adama Samassékou, Peter Wittenburg, Stephen Wolff. Also present were:

Institutional Observers: Alexander Ntoko, representing ITU; and Patrice Lyons, representing CNRI. The DONA Executive Director, Christophe Blanchi. In addition, several invited guests were present at most of the meeting at the invitation of Dr. Kahn.

Managing information in digital form

Much energy has been spent over the past few years on what is often called Software Defined Networking (SDN). In some efforts there appears to be a distinction drawn with respect to certain basic terminology: namely, the meaning of the concepts “program” and “data;” and how they may apply in the context of SDN.

The Handle System and its Application to RFID and the Internet of Things
Summary of Board Minutes July 3-4, 2014
Summary of Board Minutes July 3-4, 2014

On notice duly given, a meeting of the Board of Directors of the DONA Foundation (“DONA” or “Foundation”) was held at the Louis-Jeantet Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland beginning at 2:30 pm on July 3, 2014. The Chair thanked the University of Geneva for making the facilities of the Louis-Jeantet Foundation available for the Board meeting and for their hospitality.

Present at the meeting were Robert E. Kahn (Chair), Stefan Eberhard (Secretary), Xinmin Gao, Antoine Geissbühler, Norman Paskin, Adama Samassékou, Peter Wittenburg and Stephen Wolff, being all the members of the Board of Directors; and (for portions of the meeting) Patrice A. Lyons, Christophe Blanchi and Sam Sun representing CNRI, and Alexander Ntoko, Preetam Maloor and JeoungHee Kim representing ITU. In addition, several invited guests were present for most of the meeting at the invitation of Dr. Kahn.

Framework for discovery of identity management information

The purpose of Recommendation ITU-T X.1255 is to provide an open architecture framework in which identity management information can be discovered. This IdM information will necessarily be represented in different ways and supported by various trust frameworks or other IdM systems using different metadata schemas. This framework will enable, for example, entities operating within the context of one IdM system to have identifiers from other IdM systems accurately resolved. 

Response to the Financial Stability Board's Request for an Engineering Study on the Best Approach to Managing the Structure and Issuance of Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs)

This paper is a joint response on the part of the authors to a request from the G-20 Financial Stability Board (FSB) for an engineering study to determine which scheme for the management of ISO 17442-compliant Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) best serves the purposes of the global LEI system that is being developed under the auspices of the G-20 FSB with the active contributions and participation of the Private Sector Preparatory Group (PSPG). 

The Role of Architecture in Internet Defense

Since it was first introduced in the early 1970s, the Internet has met the growing needs of an everwidening community of users with great benefits to individuals, organizations, governments and their associated disciplines. Yet, along with that growth and evolution has come an increasing downside, namely traffic that intrudes and may disrupt productive uses of the Internet. Worse yet, concerns exist that such unwanted and unwarranted intrusions may cause more extensive damage in the future. 

Preview not available
The Profession of IT: the Long Quest for Universal Information Access

Digital object repositories are on the cusp of resolving the long-standing problem of universal information access in the Internet.

Digital Object Interface Protocol
Digital Object Interface Protocol Version 1.0

The Digital Object Interface Protocol (DOIP) is a simple, but powerful conceptual protocol for software applications (“clients”) to interact with “services” which could be either the digital objects or the information systems that manage those digital objects. 

Representing Value as Digital Objects

This article discusses the use of “digital objects” to represent “value” in the network environment. Deeds of trust, mortgages, bills of lading and digital cash can all be represented as digital objects. The notion of “transferable records” structured as digital objects is introduced, along with references to its application in real financial situations. Even in a formal information system, anonymity reflects the desire of a holder of value to remain incognito, except as he or she wishes to be made known.

RFC 3651 - Handle System Namespace and Service Definition
RFC 3651 - Handle System Namespace and Service Definition

The Handle System is a general-purpose global name service that allows secured name resolution and administration over the public Internet. This document provides a detailed description of the Handle System namespace, and its data, service, and operation models.

RFC 3652 - Handle System Protocol (ver 2.1) Specification
RFC 3652 - Handle System Protocol (ver 2.1) Specification

The Handle System is a general-purpose global name service that allows secured name resolution and administration over the public Internet. This document describes the protocol used for client software to access the Handle System for both handle resolution and administration.

Handle System Overview
RFC 3650 - Handle System Overview

This document provides an overview of the Handle System in terms of its namespace and service architecture, as well as its relationship to other Internet services such as DNS, LDAP/X.500, and URNs. The Handle System is a general-purpose global name service that allows secured name resolution and administration over networks such as the Internet. The Handle System manages handles, which are unique names for digital objects and other Internet resources.

Managing Access to Digital Information

The deployment and widespread use of global information systems like the Internet may dramatically reduce the production and distribution costs usually associated with information dissemination. With digital technology, anyone can become an information provider, able to generate and distribute ideas at little or no cost. This technology facilitates dynamic and efficient forms of creativity or innovation, such as the integration of various digital materials to manifest sounds, images, graphics, or industrial designs – all linked in interesting, innovative, or entertaining ways.

A Framework for Distributed Digital Object Services
A Framework for Distributed Digital Object Services

The following paper was written by the authors over a period of approximately 16 months during the period November 1993 to May 1995 in an attempt to explore a set of open research issues and to integrate them with certain ideas of a small group of researchers who had been briefed on the notions inherent in the Digital Object Architecture that one of the authors (Kahn) had been developing at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). 

The World of Knowbots

This volume describes an open architecture for an important new kind of national information infrastructure which we call the Digital Library System (DLS). The architectural framework includes the DLS functional components, the methodology by which the participating systems communicate with each other, and active, mobile software components, called Knowbots, which perform services for the users. Subsequent volumes will address detailed technical aspects of the architecture such as the design of Knowbots and the protocols required to bind the DLS components together.

The DONA Foundation Statutes
The DONA Foundation Statutes

Name, Seat, Purpose and Capital of the Foundation

There exists under the name "DONA Foundation" ("Fondation DONA") (the "Foundation) an independent non-profit foundation within the meaning of Articles 80 et seq of the Swiss Civil Code ("CC). 

The Foundation is registered with the Register of Commerce of the Canton of Geneva and placed under the supervision of the Swiss Supervisory Board for Foundations (the "Supervisory Authority").

The seat of the foundation is Geneva, Switzerland.

 The DONA Foundation By-Laws
The DONA Foundation By-Laws

The present By-Laws (the "By-Laws") were adopted by the Board of the DONA Foundation (the "Foundation") according to the Article 7.2 of the Statues of the Foundation (the "Statutes"). Unless otherwise defined, these By-Laws adopt the definitions contained in the Statues.

Constitution of DONA Foundation
Constitution of DONA Foundation

In the YEAR TWO THOUSAND FOURTEEN, on January 20.

IN GENEVA, at Rue Pedro-Meylan 5

Before Me David Lacin, public notary in Geneva

Appeared:

Mr. Robert Elliot Kahn, computer scientist, born December 23, 1938, from the United States, domiciled in Lynton Place 909, McLean, VA 22012, United States 

Acting in the case at hand for the account of

Corporation for National Research Initiatives(CNRI), 1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100, 20191 Reston, Virginia, United States further to a Corporate Certificate dated January 10, 2014.