Joseph Smarr

A Practical Vision for Friends-List Portability

Joseph SmarrIIW 2007b, 12/5/2007

Joseph Smarr

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

Joseph Smarr

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

Joseph Smarr

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

Joseph Smarr

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

Joseph Smarr

Building blocks: Who am I?

Basic unit: “identifier”mailto:joseph@plaxo.comhttp://josephsmarr.comhttp://twitter.com/jsmarraim:josephsmarr=josephsmarr

User’s role: managing their set of identifiersWhich identifier(s) can reveal which othersWhich identifier(s) can I be found by per app

Joseph Smarr

Building blocks: Who do I know?

Friends list = Set of identifiers I knowNeed portable list aggregated identifiersOften private data (need auth)

Proposal: social sites should provide a persistent URL to your friends-listURL can contain OAuth token for private dataLists all identifiers you knowCan be hashed for lookup-only uses

Joseph Smarr

Building blocks: How can I use my data?

Bring my list of identifiers to a new siteCan be expanded by following rel=me linksPersistent URL can keep data in sync

Match my known identifiers against the site’s list of “findable identifiers” per userUsers need control over how they’re findable

Find all people I know on new siteChoose who to connect with and how per-site

Add new site as source of friends-list dataSite publishes MicroIDs for findable identifiers

Joseph Smarr

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

Joseph Smarr

Room for everybody to win

Social networks become more powerful and relevant as they extend their reache.g. facebook platform, Plaxo Pulse

Social apps are easier to build and scaleCan outsource “who you know”Better friends list more compelling app

Users can find and share more contentEnhanced discovery, lower friction

Joseph Smarr

Next steps

Clarify / propose basic specs for interop Get early adopters to implement it Watch for early results (usage, privacy)

Feedback?

Joseph Smarr