# Henry Story Henry Story (died September 5, 2023) was a Social Web Architect and one of the earliest pioneers of decentralized identity on the web. He is best known for developing WebID — a decentralized, HTTP URI-based identity and authentication protocol that became a foundational standard underpinning the [[Solid Protocol]] and W3C's work on the Social Web. WebID allows individuals to control their own identities across the web without relying on centralized providers, linking a cryptographic certificate to a public FOAF (Friend of a Friend) profile document. Story chaired the W3C WebID Incubator Group and contributed extensively to its standardization. Story studied Analytic Philosophy at King's College London and Computing at Imperial College. He worked at AltaVista, where he helped develop the BabelFish machine translation service, and later at Sun Microsystems, where he worked on blogging platforms and early Social Web infrastructure. He was a prolific contributor to W3C working groups, the IETF Atom syndication format, and the Linked Data Protocol. In his later years he was working on a Scala-based open-source platform for cooperating decentralized systems, guided by category theory and functional programming principles. His online presence centered on bblfish.net and the handle @bblfish. ## Known For - Developing WebID: decentralized identity and authentication for the web - Chair, W3C WebID Incubator Group - BabelFish machine translation (AltaVista) - Contributions to IETF Atom, W3C Linked Data Protocol - Scala-based decentralized social platform research ## Recent Activity ### 2023 - Passed away on 5 September 2023; was actively working on decentralized Scala systems at time of death ## Quotes ```dataview LIST FROM [[]] WHERE contains(tags, "type/quote") ``` ## Books ```dataview LIST FROM [[]] WHERE contains(tags, "type/book") ``` ## Related - [[Tim Berners-Lee]] - [[Solid Protocol]] - [[WebID]] - [[Solid]] ## References - https://bblfish.net/ - https://github.com/bblfish - https://w3c.social/@bblfish - http://ozscience.com/interviews/henry-story-a-social-web-architect/ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebID - https://medium.com/@bblfish