xfn-brainstorming
XFN Brainstorming
This page is for brainstorming about various uses and details of XFN, as well as collecting input for potential extensions.
Required Reading
Before participating in any XFN brainstorming please read and understand the following:
Contributors
Extending family relationships
The XFN: Background page says:
We considered adding "grandparent," but in the end dropped the term because it seemed unlikely to be used in the near future. It may appear in future versions of XFN.
Presumably the assumption is that a grandparent won't have a website, but:
- I think it's important in some situations to capture the age difference in a relationship in a way that @rel="kin" doesn't seem to.
- Even if they don't maintain it themselves (or are deceased) there might be a URL that does a good job of representing a person.
Consider a site about one's family tree. It might have something like:
I can trace my family back to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_I_of_England/"> William the conqueror. </a>
In these cases it would be useful to have @rel="ancestor", and perhaps a corresponding @rel="descendant". -CiaranMc
Why not exploit the rev property to avoid having to use a different keyword to denote the reverse? --Jon Williams 14:41, 8 Jan 2007 (PST)
Simple Groups and Members
A very simple extension to XFN could enable decentralized group membership. E.g.
- rel="group". A person could link from their page to the page of a group that they belong to (e.g. their company, school, DJ collective etc.) and thus assert that they belong to that group.
- rel="member". The web pages of groups could link to who they consider members and thus assert that person's membership.
The relationships could be required bi-directional in order to confirm group membership, that is, both the individual must link to the group with rel="group" and the group must link to the individiual with rel="member" in order for the membership to be considered "true".
See also group-brainstorming.
-Tantek