social-network-portability

2007-08-25T14:38:18Z

JimTobin: /* Articles */

<h1> Social Network Portability </h1>
<div style="float:right;margin-left:1em">__TOC__</div>
One of several [[user-interface]] ideas and suggestions for working with microformats.

== The Problem ==
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-add all your friends?

In addition, why do you have to:
* re-turn off notifications?
* re-specify privacy preferences?
* 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".

== 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:
* notifications
* privacy
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.

# Publish microformats in your user profiles:
## implement [[hcard|hCard]] on user profile pages. See [[hcard-supporting-profiles]] for sites that have already done this.
## 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]]).
# Subscribe to microformats for your user profiles:
## when signing up a new user:
### 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.]
### 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.]

== Social Network Portability FAQ ==
*''Doesn't [http://openid.net/ OpenID] address the re-enter all your personal profile info problem?''
** 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?''
** 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.

== Issues ==
See and add to [[social-network-portability-issues]].

== Discussion and suggestions ==
* 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]
* Brian Oberkirch: [http://www.brianoberkirch.com/2007/08/08/building-blocks-for-portable-social-networks/ Building Blocks for 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]
* 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)
* Thomas Vander Wal: [http://www.personalinfocloud.com/2006/11/following_frien.html Following Friends Across Walled Gardens]
* 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]].

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.

[http://technorati.com/search/microformats.org/wiki/social-network-portability View blog reactions]

== Articles ==

*2007-8-25
**[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

* 2007-08-17
**[http://bradfitz.com/social-graph-problem/ Thoughts on the Social Graph] by Brad Fitzpatrick.
* 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.

* 2007-08-02
** [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>

==Transferability==
Lessons learned in this initiative can be transferred to other microformats; for instance, with [[hcalendar|hCalendar]], to upload an event from one calendar site to another. [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]]


== See also ==
* [[user-interface]]
* [[hcard|hCard]]
* [[xfn]]

== Related Events and Notes ==
(if you know of or can find earlier mentions on the web of "social network portability", please add the earliest reference elsewhere on the web to this chronology. [[User:Tantek|Tantek]] 08:25, 22 Aug 2007 (PDT))

* [http://www.personalinfocloud.com/2006/11/following_frien.html 2006-11-22 Following Friends Across Walled Gardens] Thomas Vander Wal
* [http://adactio.com/journal/1212/ 2006-11-23 More thoughts on portable social networks] Jeremy Keith describes the process of portability
* [http://www.glennjones.net/Post/820/Mircoformatsandportablesocialnetwork.htm 2006-11-23 Microformats and portable social network] Glenn Jones talks about portable social networks in the backnetwork
*[http://microformats.org/wiki?title=user-interface&diff=10524&oldid=10523 2006-11-24 "social network portability" phrase and problem statement introduced to microformats wiki] by [[User:Tantek|Tantek Çelik]]
*[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]
*[[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).

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

Microformats Wiki - User contributions [en]

social-network-portability