W3C is pleased to receive this submission in the field of applying digitalsignatures to documents. TheW3C Digital Signature Initiative (DSig)stated as its goal the development of mechanisms to allow statements of theform: "signer believes statement about information resource". While ourinitial goals were focussed on signing metadata, such asPICS Labels, wenow believe in broadening the scope to include signing many types ofdocuments.
SDML describes how to structure a complete signed document, with thematerial being signed as part of the document. We expect that a web-baseddocument signature scheme would have to address external documents, alsoreferenced by URI.
SDML makes a number of tradeoffs customized towards the application area ofelectronic checks. We expect that the next phase of DSig would want tomove to anXML-compliant syntax, and fully address internationalizationrequirements.
W3C will shortly be issuing a "Call for Participation" for a DSig 2.0effort. This project is currently awaiting staffing. At such time as aworking group is formed, SDML will be presented to it for their consideration.