Limitations in Distributed Social Networks
August 10th, 2007 • General
Facebook should be opened up, and here’s how.
In theory, Facebook can be replaced with a distributed set of tools. RedHat’s Mugshot is a step in this direction. Our problem isn’t walled-gardens, because the one killer application of Facebook is permissions and confirmations.
OpenID already provides the infrastructure in which each person is a URL. Meta data (e.g. RDF) can be easily attached to OpenID URLs, thus providing a public profile. But how would permissions apply? FOAF and XFN assume you’re honest about how you relate to those you link to, but none asks for their permission or confirmation. Reputations would be at stake if these systems are gamed.
In theory, I would setup a trackback-like system that “pings” OpenID profiles and asks for confirmation. Links to a profile could be authenticated via the OpenID provider. But in reality, distributed identity systems are yet to spread.
The idea of distributed social networks is great. I would love to be able to export my own data. But I still haven’t read “social” and “distributed” put in a sentence and still make sense.