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A Practical Vision for Friends-List Portability Joseph Smarr IIW 2007b, 12/5/2007

A Practical Vision for Friends-List Portability Joseph Smarr IIW 2007b, 12/5/2007. The problem. Social networks keep friends-list data trapped Social apps don’t have access to who I know Little control over who I can share my data with Have to re-establish my friendships on each site

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A Practical Vision for Friends-List Portability Joseph Smarr IIW 2007b, 12/5/2007

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  1. A Practical Vision for Friends-List Portability Joseph Smarr IIW 2007b, 12/5/2007

  2. The problem • Social networks keep friends-list data trapped • Social apps don’t have access to who I know • Little control over who I can share my data with • Have to re-establish my friendships on each site  Too hard to stay on top of what the people I know are doing online

  3. The fallout • Limited friends-list on most social apps • Missing a lot of content from my friends • Social apps desperate to get some friends-list • Re-implementing webmail scrapers • Building apps inside facebook’s platform • Sometimes I’m too easy to find on sites • e.g. hard to opt-out of being findable by email • Sometimes I’m too hard to find on sites • Generally can’t look up by homepage / URL

  4. The vision • A “facebook-like” platform for the Open Social Web • Friends list = people you know from any site(s) you use • User IDs = email / URLs from all services you know • Social apps = running anywhere with same richness • Services can still run their own external web sites • Activity streams and profile badges show up in social networks • Apps connect users and data across multiple services • Manage relationships across multiple sites • Meet someone new  choose where to connect • Try new services  find out when your friends join • Social app developers can “outsource” who you know

  5. The building blocks • Who am I? • OpenID: prove that I own a URL / profile • rel=me: these URLs describe the same person • Who do I know? • OAuth: securely share my (private) friends-list • SixApart’s (public) relationship update stream • How can I use my data? • OpenSocial: cross-platform social applications • FOAF, XFN, vCard: standard data interchanges

  6. Building blocks: Who am I? • Basic unit: “identifier” • mailto:joseph@plaxo.com • http://josephsmarr.com • http://twitter.com/jsmarr • aim:josephsmarr • =josephsmarr • User’s role: managing their set of identifiers • Which identifier(s) can reveal which others • Which identifier(s) can I be found by per app

  7. Building blocks: Who do I know? • Friends list = Set of identifiers I know • Need portable list aggregated identifiers • Often private data (need auth) • Proposal: social sites should provide a persistent URL to your friends-list • URL can contain OAuth token for private data • Lists all identifiers you know • Can be hashed for lookup-only uses

  8. Building blocks: How can I use my data? • Bring my list of identifiers to a new site • Can be expanded by following rel=me links • Persistent URL  can keep data in sync • Match my known identifiers against the site’s list of “findable identifiers” per user • Users need control over how they’re findable • Find all people I know on new site • Choose who to connect with and how per-site • Add new site as source of friends-list data • Site publishes MicroIDs for findable identifiers

  9. A practical vision • Clarity on roles and responsibilities • Users = manage your identifiers (rel=me, findability) • Social networks / applications • Give users access to their friends-list data • Let users control how they’re findable • Provide lookup for findable identifiers • Not revealing any new private information • Just using existing info more effectively • Built on existing, open technology standards • OpenID, OAuth, XFN, MicroID, URIs • Bridges lookup by e-mail address vs. URL

  10. Room for everybody to win • Social networks become more powerful and relevant as they extend their reach • e.g. facebook platform, Plaxo Pulse • Social apps are easier to build and scale • Can outsource “who you know” • Better friends list  more compelling app • Users can find and share more content • Enhanced discovery, lower friction

  11. Next steps • Clarify / propose basic specs for interop • Get early adopters to implement it • Watch for early results (usage, privacy) Feedback?

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