[uf-discuss] XPN: Xhtml Professional Network - idea

[Tantek Ç elik]

The biggest problem to date in the XBN/XPN discussions has been a lack of
discussion of *real world* examples of professional network information
*published on the web*, not just in personal applications (whether
clientside or web-based like Salesforce).

Just because any particular individual may think they theoretically need
certain values/properties doesn't mean they belong in a microformat, nor
even whether they warrant a microformat at all.  Formats aren't about the
individual and their own personal data (though personal data can be a second
order beneficiary from formats).  Formats are about information that is to
be interoperably shared between/among people.

Thankfully Steve Ganz has provided some examples of the schema that LinkedIn
uses on their website, published for others to view (not just personal use),
now we just need URLs to actual examples in order to capture them and start
analysis based on those examples rather the people's a priori perceived
needs.

On 1/25/07 5:53 PM, "Chris Messina" <chris.messina at gmail.com> wrote:

> Let's see if we can advance the topic this time around.

Everyone that wants to advance this topic is empowered to create a
*-examples page and start documenting them.  Last time this stalled because
when faced with that challenge there was little/no follow-up.  This needs to
go beyond theoretical musings to disciplined research and documentation per
the process.

Thanks,

Tantek


On 1/25/07 8:04 PM, "Tara Hunt" <horsepigcow at gmail.com> wrote:

> We actually started discussing what we were calling XBN back last
> summer when we started Citizen Agency because of our own selfish
> needs. ;)
> 
> LinkedIN is a good place to start thinking as well as applications
> like Salesforce and Zoho and Omni. All of these are great business
> applications that have very social elements.
> 
> We were thinking along the lines of:
> 
> Vendor (instead of service provider or consultant - kind of an
> industry standard term for service or goods provider)
> Client
> Employee (denotes a hierarchy beyond coworker, for payroll)
> Partner (external business partner)
> 
> with an optional:
> 
> Lead (changes to client when RFP is won, stays a lead indefinitely if
> lost to maintain a contact)
> Employer (for the employee to point back to a company to create a
> validated bond, but could just be a one-way validation?)
> 
> But hadn't had much of a chance to work on it since we got really busy.
> 
> Tara
> 
> 
> 
> On 1/25/07, Steve Ganz <steve at ganz.name> wrote:
>> On Thursday, January 25, 2007 5:53 PM Chris Messina wrote:
>> 
>>> Take a look at XBN -- we brought up this idea awhile back on
>>> Tara's urging...
>>> 
>>> http://tinyurl.com/2qa5pc
>>> 
>>> There's also more there generally about the idea of "professional"
>>> relationships. I favor a moderate advancement of professional
>>> relationships, especially in the context of hResume...
>> 
>>> Let's see if we can advance the topic this time around.
>> 
>> Thanks for re-posting this, Chris. I don't know how I missed it the first
>> time around. About a year ago, when I was playing with hResume for the first
>> time[1], I found the need to extend on XFN and came up with space seperated
>> values like: rel="employer former", rel="employer current".
>> 
>> Now that I'm working at LinkedIn, I can see the need for other definitions.
>> For a real-world example, LinkedIn defines the following relationships (this
>> is taken directly from what we present to the user for LinkedIn
>> recommendations):
>> 
>> #  Colleague: You've worked with Joe at the same company
>>   - You managed Joe directly
>>   - You reported directly to Joe
>>   - You were senior to Joe, but did not manage directly
>>   - Abdul was senior to you, but you did not report directly
>>   - You worked with Joe in the same group
>>   - You worked with Joe in different groups
>> 
>> #  Service Provider: You've hired Joe to provide a service for you or your
>> company
>> 
>> #  Business Partner: You've worked with Joe, but not as a client or
>> colleague
>>   - You worked with Joe but were at different companies
>>   - Joe was a client of yours
>> 
>> Obviously, what LinkedIn calls a Colleague in the description above
>> translates to "co-worker" in XFN and what we call a Business Partner
>> translates to "colleague" in XFN. Right now, we currently use XFN to markup
>> a user's contacts as rel="contact". We want to expand XFN usage in the near
>> term so that a contact at the same company is marked up as a
>> rel="co-worker". But it would be great to have some additional values to
>> work with.
>> 
>> Beyond the professional relationships, a relationship that we define at
>> LinkedIn is that of "classmate". I see this in use at a number of social
>> networks. I think rel="classmate" with variations of "former" and "current"
>> would be very useful.
>> 
>> - Steve
>> 
>> [1] http://steve.ganz.name/blog/2006/01/hresume.html
>> 
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> 
>