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<h1> Social Network Portability </h1>
<h1> Social Network Portability </h1>
<div style="float:right;margin-left:1em">__TOC__</div>
{{TOC-right}}
One of several [[user-interface]] ideas and suggestions for working with microformats.
Social network portability is one of several [[user-interface]] ideas and suggestions for working with microformats in the area of [[data-portability]].


== The Problem ==
== The Problem ==
Why is it that every single social network community site makes you:
Why is it that every single social network community site makes you:
* re-enter all your personal profile info (name, email, birthday, URL etc.)?
* re-enter all your [[hcard-supporting-user-profiles|personal profile info]] (name, email, birthday, URL etc.)?
* re-add all your friends?
* re-add all your [[hcard-xfn-supporting-friends-lists|friends]]?


In addition, why do you have to:
In addition, why do you have to:
* re-turn off notifications?
* re-turn off notifications?
* re-specify privacy preferences?
* re-specify privacy preferences?
* re-block [http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/04/angrynegative_p.html negative people]?
* re-[[block]] [http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/04/angrynegative_p.html negative people]?


AKA "social network fatigue problem" and "social network update/maintenance problem".
AKA "social network fatigue problem" and "social network update/maintenance problem".
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In addition it would be nice if preferences around:
In addition it would be nice if preferences around:
* notifications
* notifications
* privacy
* [[privacy]]
also transferred between profiles.
also transferred between profiles.


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The "How To" for social network profile sites that want to solve the above problems and achieve the above goals.
The "How To" for social network profile sites that want to solve the above problems and achieve the above goals.


# Publish microformats in your user profiles:
# Publish microformats in your user profiles and contacts.
## implement [[hcard|hCard]] on user profile pages.  See [[hcard-supporting-profiles]] for sites that have already done this.
## implement [[hcard|hCard]] on user profile pages, including [[xfn]] rel="me" on hyperlinks to users' blogs or home pages that they specify.  See [[hcard-supporting-profiles]] for sites that have already done this. See [[how-to-publish-user-profiles]] for more details (See [[hcard-authoring]] until that previous link is created and filled in.)
## implement [[hcard|hCard]]+[[xfn|XFN]] on the list of friends on your user profile pages. See [[hcard-xfn-supporting-friends-lists]] for sites that already do this. (e.g. [[http://twitter.com/ Twitter]]).
## implement [[hcard|hCard]]+[[xfn|XFN]] on the list of contacts on your user profile pages. Use [[xfn]] rel="me" to link to contacts list pages and contacts list pagination links too. See [[hcard-xfn-supporting-friends-lists]] for sites that already do this. (e.g. [[http://twitter.com/ Twitter]]) and [[how-to-markup-contact-lists]] for more details.
# Subscribe to microformats for your user profiles:
## implement [[hcard|hCard]] wherever a user's name is mentioned in lists, in comments, in messages or wherever else it would help to identity that a "person" or "organization" is being referred to.  
## when signing up a new user:
# Subscribe to microformats for your user profiles and contacts:
### let a user fill out and <em title="Auto-sync is more than just one-time import, check it and sync-up once a day.">"auto-sync"</em> from one of their existing [[hcard-supporting-profiles]], their name, their icon etc.  [http://microformats.org/blog/2007/06/21/microformatsorg-turns-2/ Satisfaction Inc already supports this.]
## when signing up a new user and importing contacts
### let a user fill out and <em title="Auto-sync is more than just one-time import, check it and sync-up once a day.">"auto-sync"</em> their list of friends from one of their existing [[hcard-xfn-supporting-friends-lists|hCard+XFN supporting friends lists]]. [http://microformats.org/blog/2007/06/21/microformatsorg-turns-2/ Dopplr.com already supports this.]
### let a user fill out and <em title="Auto-sync is more than just one-time import, check it and sync-up once a day.">"auto-sync"</em> from one of their existing [[hcard-supporting-profiles]], their name, their icon etc.  [http://microformats.org/blog/2007/06/21/microformatsorg-turns-2/ Satisfaction Inc already supports this] ([http://staging.getsatisfaction.com/people/new sign up page]). See [[how-to-import-user-profiles]] for more details.
### let a user fill out and <em title="Auto-sync is more than just one-time import, check it and sync-up once a day.">"auto-sync"</em> their list of contacts from one of their existing [[hcard-xfn-supporting-friends-lists|hCard+XFN supporting friends lists]]. [http://microformats.org/blog/2007/06/21/microformatsorg-turns-2/ Dopplr.com already supports this] ([http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=576635008&size=o screenshot]).  See [[how-to-import-contacts]] for more details (e.g. first implement direct XFN friends list import/subscribe by using the SGAPI to important contacts *across the web*, much faster than importing from one service at a time.)
 
== Resources ==
=== Groups ===
* [http://ma.gnolia.com/groups/PSN Ma.gnolia Portable Social Networks group] for aggregated bookmarks around the subject and join the group to share links.
* [http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/3601/ Upcoming Social Network Portability group] for events to discuss and implement social network portability.
 
=== Open Source ===
* "[http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/ OpenSocial] defines a common API for social applications across multiple websites.
* [[hKit]] - web service and open source PHP for parsing/importing/subscribing to [[hcard-supporting-profiles|hCard open user profiles]].
* "[http://opensocialgraph.plaxo.com/ Online Identity Consolidator]" rel="me" web parser/crawler web service and open source Python. (source code link now broken; Google code has a copy at [http://code.google.com/p/google-sgnodemapper/source/browse/trunk/plaxo-rel_me_crawler.py rel_me_crawler.py])
* "[http://django-psn.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/readme.html Django-PSN (portable social networks)]" open source for a user interface to create links on a social network profile to "other profiles" marked up with rel="me" naturally.  The code can be seen in action on the [http://pownce.com Pownce] website, e.g. on [http://pownce.com/t/ a Pownce profile page that links to other profiles of the same user]. This is a great complement to the above Plaxo Online Identity Consolidator. What Django-PSN publishes, Plaxo Online Identity Consolidator parses.
* [http://code.google.com/p/identity-matcher/ identity-matcher] - Rails plugin to match identities and social network information from sites such as GMail, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and any site supporting appropriate microformats. This code was extracted and contributed from Dopplr.
* [http://redmonk.net/projects/portable-social-network-lib/ Portable Social Network Lib] is a Ruby library for consuming/providing Portable Social Network services in social web apps, written by Steve Ivy. ([http://redmonk.net/archives/2007/11/07/if-you-love-your-users-set-them-free-portable-social-networks/ More])
* [http://code.google.com/p/diso/ DiSo] - ''distributed social networking'' components, [[User:Chris_Messina|Chris Messina]] and [[User:SteveIvy|Steve Ivy]]
 
=== User Interfaces ===
* "[http://gerardramos.com/mf/ Social Network Portability with Microformats]" - a user interface that lets you check how portable your social network is across various sites.
* "[http://lab.backnetwork.com/ufXtract-psn/ ufXtract - Portable social network profile parser]" - A public API which can extract both hCard-XFN patterns and XFN rel=me links from social networks. The API can spider multiple pages following rel=me links. It also tries to find the representative hCard and provides output as JSON or XML.


== Social Network Portability FAQ ==
== Social Network Portability FAQ ==
*''Doesn't [http://openid.net/ OpenID] address the re-enter all your personal profile info problem?''
See [[social-network-portability-faq]].
** No it does not. OpenID is fundamentally about proving to one site that you own or control another particular URL.  Nothing more.  All the profile stuff is extra and even then the specific property set is unspecified in OpenID.  That's where [[hcard|hCard]] comes in.  hCard specifies a vocabulary of personal profile info (name, email, birthday, URL etc.) based on industry standard vCard.  And in fact that's all you need to solve the "re-enter all your personal info" problem for public sites - no need to authenticate public URLs via OpenID, just read them and parse their hCard(s).
 
*''Doesn't OpenID provide people with a way to create a globally unique identifier for themselves?''
== Events ==
** It is URL (by way of DNS) that creates a globally unique identifier, not OpenID. All OpenID does is add ''authentication'' on top of having a URL that is itself a globally unique identifier, that is, OpenID is a way of asserting that you "own" or otherwise control a particular URL to another service/site. The essential quality of being a globally unique identifier is present in a URL even without OpenID. Thus, no, it is not OpenID that ''creates'' a ''globally unique identifier'', rather, simply using a ''URL'' creates a globally unique identifier. A URL ''by itself'' can be used as a basis for portable social networks, since it provides a way of referring to a single person that makes sense across the whole Web.  And as such, people can (and will) create multiple URLs that represent them, so a method of enabling people to tie their URLs together (e.g. XFN's rel="me") becomes important. However, by adding authentication, OpenID can enhance existing globally unique identifier URLs for people, by permitting authenticated access to (perhaps more information in) profiles and social networks represented at those URLs using microformats.
*[[events/2007-07-28-portable-social-networks-meetup|2007-07-28 portable social networks initial meeting]] between Daniel Burka, [[User:Tantek|Tantek Çelik]], Eran Globen, Brian Oberkirch at Ritual Coffee Roasters, San Francisco, CA. Discussed portable social networks, simplified and crystalized problem statement (with progressive problems to solve), goals, design patterns, recipes. Created [[social-network-portability]] page.
* [[events/2007-08-19-social-network-portability-today|2007-08-19 BarCampBlock session on social network portability TODAY]] at Princeton Review offices, High Street, Palo Alto, CA. Reviewed problem statement, how sites can use the [[hcard|hCard]] and [[xfn|XFN]] microformats *today* to become a node on the "open social web" (phrase introduced).
* [[events/2007-08-28-social-network-portability-today|2007-08-28 Social Network Portability Today]] lunchtime meetup
* [[events/2007-09-05-dconstruct-microformats-workshop|2007-09-05 d.Construct workshop on microformats]] which covered both [[data-portability]] and [[social-network-portability]].
* [[events/2007-09-08-social-network-portability|2007-09-08 BarCampBrighton session on social network portability]] at Madgex offices, North Street, Brighton, England.
* [[events/2007-09-25-social-network-portability|2007-09-25 Portable Social Network Micro Meetup]] at Citizen Space, San Francisco, CA, USA.
*[[events/2007-09-28-portable-social-networks-meetup-amsterdam|2007-09-28 Portable Social Network Panel]] at PICNIC in Amsterdam, Netherlands
* <span class="vevent"><span class="dtstart">2007-10-04</span> <span class="summary">[[events/2007-10-04-fundamentos-web-social-network-portability|Fundamentos Web: Social Network Portability]]</span> by Tantek Çelik &mdash; <span class="location adr"><span class="locality">Gij&oacute;n</span>, <span class="country-name">Spain</span></span></span>
* <span class="vevent"><span class="dtstart">2008-09-05</span>: <span class="summary">[[events/2008-09-05-dconstruct-social-network-portability|dConstruct 2008: Social Network Portability]]</span> (<span class="url">http://2008.dconstruct.org/schedule/TantekCelik.php#talk</span>) at [http://2008.dconstruct.org/ dConstruct 2008] in <span class="location">Brighton, England</span>.</span> ([http://tantek.com/presentations/2008/09/social-network-portability presentation])
* ...
 
See the microformats [[events]] page for upcoming events related to social network portability.
 
== Articles and blog posts ==
Note: if you know of or can find earlier mentions on the web of the phrases "portable social network" or "social network portability", please add the earliest reference elsewhere on the web to this chronology. [[User:Tantek|Tantek]] 08:25, 22 Aug 2007 (PDT).


== Issues ==
* 2006-11-15 Jon Hicks: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/hicksdesign/298271647/ The straw that broke this camels back]: <blockquote><p>Thats the last social service that involves me adding all my friends in all over again. Life is too chuffing short.</p><p>Please, can someone come up with some way of avoiding this repetition of 'buddies'?!</p></blockquote>
* For import/subscribe to hCard user profiles, "we need a defined heuristic for picking out the page owner from the friends." - Kevin Marks in IRC.
* <strong>2006-11-15</strong> [http://twitter.com/drewm/statuses/68199 Drew McLellan on Twitter]: (Perhaps the earliest mention of the concept of social network portability.) <blockquote><p>Thinking that we really need to join the dots with XFN and make social networks portable.</p></blockquote>
** There are some thoughts and proposed heuristics for this in [[hcard-brainstorming#Representative_hCard_discovery|hCard brainstorming: representative hCard discovery]].[[User:Tantek|Tantek]] 14:35, 31 Jul 2007 (PDT)
* <strong>2006-11-15</strong> [http://twitter.com/adactio/statuses/68412 Jeremy Keith on Twitter]: (first known reference to "<strong>portable social networks</strong>") <blockquote><p> Agreeing with Drew about using XFN to create portable social networks. If we don't, Jon is going to go postal.</p></blockquote> The mention of Jon is likely a reference to the [http://www.flickr.com/photos/hicksdesign/298271647/ above-mentioned Flickr photo].
* 2006-11-19 Phil Gyford: [http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2006/11/19/your_single_soci.php Your single social network] <blockquote><p>I really, really want a single service where I can say “these people are my friends” and then when I sign up to any new website I can sync it with my previously-defined social network.</p></blockquote>
* 2006-11-21 Jeremy Keith: [http://adactio.com/journal/1209/ Twittering]: <blockquote><p>Here’s what I want: when I go to the latest social networking fadsite, I want it to ask for my URL. Then it can go off and fetch my [[hcard|hCard]] and [[xfn|XFN]] list. A pre-filled form for my details and a pre-filled list of potential contacts can then be presented to me.</p></blockquote>
* 2006-11-21 Derek Featherstone: [http://www.boxofchocolates.ca/archives/2006/11/21/solving-problems-with-social-networking Solving problems with social networking]
* 2006-11-22 Thomas Vander Wal: [http://www.personalinfocloud.com/2006/11/following_frien.html Following Friends Across Walled Gardens] - first mention of "portable social network" but in reference to quoting Jeremy Keith
* 2006-11-23 Jeremy Keith: [http://adactio.com/journal/1212/ More thoughts on portable social networks] - describes the process of portability
* 2006-11-23 Glenn Jones: [http://www.glennjones.net/Post/820/Microformatsandportablesocialnetwork.htm Microformats and portable social network] - talks about portable social networks in the backnetwork
* 2006-11-23 Velvetsarah has [http://www.velvet.id.au/2006/11/23/portable-social-networks/ posted a screenshot and brainstorm] about how a site could handle importing XFN enabled contacts. See [[social-network-portability-interfaces]] for more.
* <strong>2006-11-24</strong> [http://microformats.org/wiki?title=user-interface&diff=10524&oldid=10523 "<strong>social network portability</strong>" phrase and problem statement introduced to microformats wiki] by [[User:Tantek|Tantek Çelik]]
* 2007-03-11 Robert Gaal: [http://www.53miles.com/archives/making-openid-your-only-online-profile-alpha-dash Making OpenID your only online profile: Alpha Dash] - An abstract attempt to create one dashboard, to be used as a starting point for all social networks. It contains four elements: identity, ownership, presence and contacts (see comments also)
* 2007-05-16 [http://2007.xtech.org/public/schedule/paper/69 What is your provenance?] by Gavin Bell for Xtech 2007. Also available on [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8663100900373306094 Google Video]
* 2007-06-20 Alper Çuğun: [http://fourstarters.com/2007/06/20/the-future-of-everything-is-social-consolidate-and-take-back-your-social-network/ The Future of Everything is Social: Consolidate and take back your social network]
* 2007-07-17 Kevin Lawver: [http://www.lawver.net/archive/2007/07/17/h12_portable_social_networks_at_mashup_camp.php A Portable Social Network Prototype] - A simple Ruby on Rails app that uses OpenID + XFN to look for users of the site w/ the same homepage as the href value and allows you to add them as contacts.
*[http://www.plaxo.com/about/releases/release-20070718 2007-07-17 Plaxo Pushes For "Open Social Web": Endorses and implements key open standards, OpenID and microformats]
* 2007-07-18 Jeremiah Owyang: [http://twitter.com/jowyang/statuses/156097392 Twittering]: <blockquote><p>What if we could port all our friends and family from one social network to another. Why do we have to continue to add people = annoying</p></blockquote>
* 2007-07-18 Brian Oberkirch: [http://www.brianoberkirch.com/2007/07/18/highrise-microformats-and-portable-social-networks/ Highrise, microformats and portable social networks]
* 2007-07-24 Thomas Vander Wal: [http://vanderwal.net/random/entrysel.php?blog=1937 Sharing and Following/Listening in the Social Web]
* See [[events/2007-07-28-portable-social-networks-meetup#blog_posts|blog posts following up]] from the [[events/2007-07-28-portable-social-networks-meetup|2007-07-28-portable social networks meetup]].
* 2007-08-01 Jeffrey Zeldman: [http://www.zeldman.com/2007/08/01/social-network-portability/ "InterNetwork" regarding social network portability]
* 2007-08-02
** [http://www.brosbeforeblogs.com/2007/08/identity-crisis.html Identity Crisis part 1] <blockquote><p>We need to put the ownership of how we define relationships online in the hands of the individual, not the services that utilize them.</p><p>My theory on how this should be accomplished is based on a marriage of OpenID and an open standard for defining relationships such as the [[XFN]] [http://microformats.org/ Microformat]. </p></blockquote>
** [http://www.brianoberkirch.com/2007/08/02/deeelightful-making-profile-import-a-snap/ Deeelightful: Making Profile Import a Snap] <blockquote><p>Why not make it simple for them to jumpstart a profile by reusing information they already have on the [[hcard|Web? Some forward thinking Web services are marking up user profile data with hCard, a microformat that]] signifies a person, place or organization is being described.</p></blockquote>
* 2007-08-08 Brian Oberkirch: [http://www.brianoberkirch.com/2007/08/08/building-blocks-for-portable-social-networks/ Building Blocks for Portable Social Networks]
* 2007-08-15 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6944653.stm Pull down the walled gardens] Internet law professor Michael Geist says the walled gardens of social networks should be pulled down.
* 2007-08-16 Stephanie Booth: [http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2007/08/16/we-need-structured-portable-social-networks-spsn/ We Need Structured Portable Social Networks (SPSN)] (links to two more posts on the subject, but not certain they're relevant enough for a separate listing; edit as you see fit)
* 2007-08-17 [http://bradfitz.com/social-graph-problem/ Thoughts on the Social Graph] by Brad Fitzpatrick.
* 2007-08-25 [http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/linking-it-all-%e2%80%93-social-network-portability/ Linking It All-Social Network Portability] by Mike Lotz for Ignite Social Media
* 2007-09-03 [http://themaninblue.com/writing/perspective/2007/09/03/ There are no social networks] by Cameron Adams
<blockquote><p>If you can't see my friends and let my friends be seen, you'll be washed up and hung out to dry.</p></blockquote>
* 2007-09-07 [[User:LynX|Carlo v. Loesch]]: [http://about.psyc.eu/Social_network#But.._why_microformats.3F Privacy and the web? Notification and HTTP? Are you looking at the right technologies!?]
* 2007-11-21 Sitepoint article [http://www.sitepoint.com/article/social-networks-take-friends Portable Social Networks: Take Your Friends with You]
* 2007-12-03 [http://www.glennjones.net/Post/833/Makingyoursocialnetworkingdataportable-Markingupprofilesandfriendswith.htm Making your social networking data portable - Marking up profiles and friends with mircoformats] by Glenn Jones
* 2008-02-19 [http://www.glennjones.net/Post/835/SemanticCampLondon.htm Can your website be your API and real life] presentation by Glenn Jones (Semantic Camp London) covers social network portability and date portability


* Profile information can be a very broad term judging from some of the horribly long profile forms I have seen on for instancy MyBlogLog. Some stuff should be essential, but optionally you can add pretty much anything as somebody's profile. Some optionals which could be nice to have: [[User:Alper|Alper]] 05:43, 3 Aug 2007 (PDT)
See [http://ma.gnolia.com/groups/PSN ma.gnolia Portable Social Network Group] for aggregated bookmarks around the subject and join the group to share links.
*# hResume markup for current (and previous) occupation and school history, maybe also for skills/interests.
*# hReview markup to automatically get the favorite books, music, movies of somebody instead of duplicating it across sites.


== Discussion and suggestions ==
[http://technorati.com/search/microformats.org/wiki/social-network-portability View blog reactions] to this page.
* Jeremy Keith: [http://adactio.com/journal/1209/ Twittering]: <blockquote><p>Here’s what I want: when I go to the latest social networking fadsite, I want it to ask for my URL. Then it can go off and fetch my [[hcard|hCard]] and [[xfn|XFN]] list. A pre-filled form for my details and a pre-filled list of potential contacts can then be presented to me.</p></blockquote>
* Derek Featherstone: [http://www.boxofchocolates.ca/archives/2006/11/21/solving-problems-with-social-networking Solving problems with social networking]
* Jeremy Keith: [http://adactio.com/journal/1212/ More thoughts on portable social networks]
* Glenn Jones: [http://www.glennjones.net/Post/820/Microformatsandportablesocialnetwork.htm Microformats and portable social network]
* Velvetsarah has [http://www.velvet.id.au/2006/11/23/portable-social-networks/ posted a screenshot and brainstorm] about how a site could handle importing XFN enabled contacts.
[http://www.velvet.id.au/2006/11/23/portable-social-networks/ http://www.velvet.id.au/out/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/picture-9.png]
* Jeremiah Owyang: [http://twitter.com/jowyang/statuses/156097392 Twittering]: <blockquote><p>What if we could port all our friends and family from one social network to another. Why do we have to continue to add people = annoying</p></blockquote>
* Brian Oberkirch: [http://urltea.com/10ee Highrise, microformats and portable social networks]
* Kevin Lawver: [http://www.lawver.net/archive/2007/07/17/h12_portable_social_networks_at_mashup_camp.php A Portable Social Network Prototype] - A simple Ruby on Rails app that uses OpenID + XFN to look for users of the site w/ the same homepage as the href value and allows you to add them as contacts.
* Robert Gaal: [http://www.53miles.com/archives/making-openid-your-only-online-profile-alpha-dash Making OpenID your only online profile: Alpha Dash] - An abstract attempt to create one dashboard, to be used as a starting point for all social networks. It contains four elements: identity, ownership, presence and contacts (see comments also)
* Alper Çuğun: [http://fourstarters.com/2007/06/20/the-future-of-everything-is-social-consolidate-and-take-back-your-social-network/ The Future of Everything is Social: Consolidate and take back your social network]


See [[events/2007-07-28-portable-social-networks-meetup#blog_posts|blog posts following up]] from the [[events/2007-07-28-portable-social-networks-meetup|2007-07-28-portable social networks meetup]].
== Issues ==
* Beware of and avoid [[social-network-anti-patterns]]!
* See and add to [[social-network-portability-issues]].


[http://technorati.com/search/microformats.org/wiki/social-network-portability View blog reactions]
== Alternative Approaches ==
Non-web based:
* [http://about.psyc.eu psyc] and [http://www.psyced.org psyced], a decentralized multi-protocol chat and event notification system with [http://about.psyc.eu/Social_Network friendship] and [http://about.psyc.eu/Trust trust] modeling.


== See also ==
== See also ==
 
* [[social-network-portability-interfaces]]
* [[user-interface]]
* [[social-network-portability-faq]]
* [[social-network-portability-issues]]
* [[social-network-anti-patterns]]
* [[hcard|hCard]]
* [[hcard|hCard]]
* [[xfn]]
* [[xfn]]
 
* [[user-interface]]
== Notes ==
* [[data-portability]]
[[events/2007-07-28-portable-social-networks-meetup|2007-07-28 Meeting]] between Daniel Burka, [[User:Tantek|Tantek Çelik]], Eran Globen, Brian Oberkirch at Ritual Coffee Roasters, San Francsico, CA.
* discussed portable social networks, problem statement, goals, design patterns, recipes

Latest revision as of 09:36, 17 January 2017

Social Network Portability

Social network portability is one of several user-interface ideas and suggestions for working with microformats in the area of data-portability.

The Problem

Why is it that every single social network community site makes you:

In addition, why do you have to:

AKA "social network fatigue problem" and "social network update/maintenance problem".

The Goals

When you join a new site, you should be able to import or preferably subscribe to

  • your profile information
  • your social network

from any existing profile of yours.

In addition it would be nice if preferences around:

also transferred between profiles.

AKA a social internetwork, a network of social networks.

Design Patterns and Recipes

The "How To" for social network profile sites that want to solve the above problems and achieve the above goals.

  1. Publish microformats in your user profiles and contacts.
    1. implement hCard on user profile pages, including xfn rel="me" on hyperlinks to users' blogs or home pages that they specify. See hcard-supporting-profiles for sites that have already done this. See how-to-publish-user-profiles for more details (See hcard-authoring until that previous link is created and filled in.)
    2. implement hCard+XFN on the list of contacts on your user profile pages. Use xfn rel="me" to link to contacts list pages and contacts list pagination links too. See hcard-xfn-supporting-friends-lists for sites that already do this. (e.g. [Twitter]) and how-to-markup-contact-lists for more details.
    3. implement hCard wherever a user's name is mentioned in lists, in comments, in messages or wherever else it would help to identity that a "person" or "organization" is being referred to.
  2. Subscribe to microformats for your user profiles and contacts:
    1. when signing up a new user and importing contacts
      1. let a user fill out and "auto-sync" from one of their existing hcard-supporting-profiles, their name, their icon etc. Satisfaction Inc already supports this (sign up page). See how-to-import-user-profiles for more details.
      2. let a user fill out and "auto-sync" their list of contacts from one of their existing hCard+XFN supporting friends lists. Dopplr.com already supports this (screenshot). See how-to-import-contacts for more details (e.g. first implement direct XFN friends list import/subscribe by using the SGAPI to important contacts *across the web*, much faster than importing from one service at a time.)

Resources

Groups

Open Source

User Interfaces

Social Network Portability FAQ

See social-network-portability-faq.

Events

See the microformats events page for upcoming events related to social network portability.

Articles and blog posts

Note: if you know of or can find earlier mentions on the web of the phrases "portable social network" or "social network portability", please add the earliest reference elsewhere on the web to this chronology. Tantek 08:25, 22 Aug 2007 (PDT).

If you can't see my friends and let my friends be seen, you'll be washed up and hung out to dry.

See ma.gnolia Portable Social Network Group for aggregated bookmarks around the subject and join the group to share links.

View blog reactions to this page.

Issues

Alternative Approaches

Non-web based:

See also

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