[uf-discuss] Proposal: Mandatory connection of a XFN to a "source" hCard and a "target" hCard

[Thom Shannon]

Just as an example of where URLs are more than enough, here's a way you 
could use Googles Social Graph API.

Bob signs up to new fangled social n etwork, he's prompted for a profile 
address to find if any of his friends are already on here.
NewFangled asks Google for his relationships, G returns pages that he 
claims are his (his twitter, flickr pages etc) and urls of people on 
other networks (Eves twitter page, Alices flickr page).

It turns out no one else is on NewFangled yet, but NewFangled stores the 
URLs that Bob lays a claim to, his flickr and twitter pages (stored as a 
hash!).

Now Alice comes a long to NewFangled, and goes through the same process. 
Amongst her relationships google returns the url to Bobs flickr page, 
which happens to be stored in it's db and attached to Bobs NewFangled 
account. Now Alice can choose to make the same connection on the new site.

Anyway that's how I see Googles API being used, all based on people 
identifying themselves by a URL or two.


Costello, Roger L. wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> Below is a proposal.  The proposal is based on the following assertion.
>
> ASSERTION
>
> An expression of a relationship is useful only if you know who is the
> source and who is the target of the relationship.  
>
>
> EXAMPLE 
>
> ??? is friends with ??? is not useful.  
>
> But Alice is friends with Bob is useful.
>      ^          ^          ^
>      |          |          |
>      |          |          |
>    source   relationship target
>
>
> ASSERTION, VERSION 2
>
> XFN relationship information is useful only if an *application* (e.g.
> robot) can dynamically determine who is the source and who is the
> target of the relationship.
>
>
> PROBLEM WITH XFN TODAY
>
> Today, an XFN relationship can be expressed without any indication of
> who is the source and who is the target of the relationship.
> Typically, the information about who is the source is present on the
> web page containing the XFN.  But that information can be *anywhere*
> and in *any form*.  Thus, given an *arbitrary web page* containing XFN,
> it is not possible for a robot application to determine who is the
> source individual.  Ditto for the target individual.  At best, the
> source and target information is obtained with an extreme level of
> coding effort which is unlikely to be successful with all web pages
> (natural language processing is required).
>
> Note: "The source is the person who created the web page that contains
> the XFN."  That is not correct, as the following example illustrates.
> Besides, even if it were true (which it's not), a robot application
> would not know who "created the web page."  That information must be
> embedded within the web page.  Ditto for the target.
>
>
> EXAMPLE 
>
> Here's an example usage of XFN on a Flickr page:
>
> <a href="/photos/24172116 at N08/" rel="contact">
>     <img
> src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2146/buddyicons/24172116@N08.jpg?12
> 03935044#24172116 at N08" 
>          alt="Jolene_A" width="48" height="48" /><br />
>     Jolene_A
> </a>
>
> Notice the use of XFN: >>> rel="contact" <<<
>
> Also notice that there is no indication of who is stating this
> relationship or who is the target of this relationship, i.e. to a robot
> application this is what the XFN indicates ??? contact ??? which is
> meaningless.
>
>
> PROPOSAL 
>
> 1. If XFN is used on a web page then that web page MUST contain an
> hCard of the person that represents the source of the relationship.
>
> Example: Consider a web page that uses XFN:
>  
>    <a href="..." rel="friend">
>
> Suppose that the intended source individual is Alice, i.e. Alice is
> friends with xxx  Then somewhere on the web page there MUST be an hCard
> for Alice, e.g.
>
>    <div id="vcard"> 
>       <div class="fn">Alice</div>
>
> 2. There MUST be a mechanism that connects the XFN to the hCard that
> represents the source individual.  Or, there MUST be a mechanism on the
> hCard that connects it to the XFN.
>
> 3. The target of the XFN-bearing hyperlink MUST contain an hCard that
> represents the target individual.  And there MUST be some mechanism
> that connects the XFN to that target individual's hCard.
>
> Exception: if the XFN is "me" then the hCard MAY not be repeated in
> both the web page of the source and the web page of the target.
>
>
> OTHER REQUIREMENTS?
>
> Are there any other requirements?  
>
> Note: I am focusing just on the requirements at the present time. I'd
> like to collect all of the requirements prior to thinking about how it
> would be expressed in HTML.
>
> /Roger 
>
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