[uf-discuss] XFN is getting smoked by FOAF

[Costello, Roger L.]

Hi Folks,

I have been doing some digging into social networks that use XFN vice
FOAF.

Thus far, the only social network that I have found which uses XFN is
metafilter.com For an example, see:
http://www.metafilter.com/usercontacts/292  Thanks Scott Reynen for
pointing me to it. 

Supposedly WordPress.com uses XFN but I have not been able to
demonstrate this (I have an account on WordPress and have tried
repeatedly to demonstrate the use of XFN but to no avail).

Conversely, I discovered that FOAF is used by many social networks.
Here is a list of 28 social networks that use FOAF:
http://esw.w3.org/topic/FoafSites

Here's an example of the use of FOAF on livejournal.com
http://danbri.livejournal.com/data/foaf (View >> Page Source to see the
actual FOAF document)

Another thing that I have discovered is that the relationship
information provided by FOAF is just "knows", e.g. Alice knows Bob.
XFN, on the other hand, has a rich set of relationship information,
e.g. Alice is a friend, co-worker, neighbor, and kin of Bob.
Furthermore, XFN is a much lighter-weight approach (just add the
relationship onto a link) than FOAF (create a complex RDF document).
So it would seem that XFN provides a richer and lighter-weight set of
information and would be a better choice for social networks.

WHY IS THERE SUCH LITTLE USE OF XFN BY SOCIAL NETWORKS?

/Roger