social-network-portability: Difference between revisions

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== 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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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, 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.
## 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. Use [[xfn]] rel="me" to link to friends list pages and friends list pagination links too. 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 ==
== Resources ==
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* [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://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.
* [http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/3601/ Upcoming Social Network Portability group] for events to discuss and implement social network portability.
=== Open Source ===
=== 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]].
* [[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.
* "[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://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://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 ===
=== 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://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 ==
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* [[events/2007-09-08-social-network-portability|2007-09-08 BarCampBrighton session on social network portability]] at Madgex offices, North Street, Brighton, England.
* [[events/2007-09-08-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/2007-09-25-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">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])
* ...
* ...


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* 2007-08-17 [http://bradfitz.com/social-graph-problem/ Thoughts on the Social Graph] by Brad Fitzpatrick.
* 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
* 2007-08-25 [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!?]
* 2007-09-07 [[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


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.
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.

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