Data model for social graph

[neilni...@gmail.com]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for some tutorials to explain whether if it is possible
to retrieve a social graph from Facebook or other social networking
websites and save in in a database.. Is it there a data model for a
social graph.

I understand the concepts of using XFN but I just need to comfirm if I
understand it correctly. Thanks

[neilni...@gmail.com]

And also if i use the portablecontact from http://portablecontacts.net/.
is that one way to record social graph.

[Martin Atkins]

Facebook does have an API for fetching a list of a user's friends, but:
* It is only available for users who have "added" your application, or
for users that are trusted by the user you're making the request as.
* Facebook's Terms Of Service for the APIs are pretty strict about
creating external copies of data, so you'll want to review that
carefully and make sure what you're planning to do is allowed.

Facebook's developer documentation should give you the information you
need on both counts.

[thomas]

Hi everyone and martin,

Interesting question. I am also looking for a Data model for saving
social graph. Is there a "Data model" for social graph.. The
portablecontact schema, is it not suitable for storing the social
graph. Is there a social graph parser.

I am quite new to this area and would like to learn about step by step
tutorial to create a social graph and be able to test the concept.
Thank you very much for your help..

[Steven Greenberg]

Hi, Thomas.

The best place to start is probably the Google Social Graph API.

       http://code.google.com/apis/socialgraph/

[Steve Ng Ming Yeow]

Hi Thomas, Neil, 

  Are you looking for a ways to model the social graph on your own backend, or asking about where the data is available? 

M

--
Discovery - Going Beyond Engagement: http://is.gd/op2 (My Current Pet Project)
What I do: http://v3.mingyeow.com/?page_id=5

[thomas]

Hi Steve,

Thank you very much for your comment.

I did have a look at the social graph from Google, but I could not see
how the service actually work in Facebook or Twitter.

So is it a wrong thing to ask if there is Social graph parser? Where
can I start to to play around with social graph? Can't we not
describe the social graph in XML format ? I understand at some
points, there have to be a server that parses the xml and follow the
links to find out where there other information on a different
network.

so I guess I like to model it on the back end. Thanks

[thomas]

Hi Steve,


Actually, I might need to run a simple example from Google social
graph API. What do I need to do to set up the connection. Is that
addding a link to my user profile..

<a href="http://www.facebook.com/Thomas" rel="me" >me</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/Thomas" rel="me" >me</a>

And then use the google Social graph to search for information Thanks

[Loïc DIAS DA SILVA]

Why not use FOAF ? cf foafdrive.com

--
-- Loïc DIAS DA SILVA mglcel[at]mglcel[dot](fr/com/net) The future is
bright.

[thomas]

Hi Silva,

So we have a 3 competing technologies:

XFN and Google social graph <--> FOAF <--> portable contact

I know portableconatct is used by Plaxo.
XFN and Google social graph is supported by Google.
Is there anyone using FOAF.

Am I wrong in making these assumptions ?

[Loïc DIAS DA SILVA]

Well, in fact i think it is more complicated.

- XFN and FOAF are related to semantic web technologies applied to social graph in order to build a decentralized social network linking together different resources, qualifying the relation between them (XFN) and describing profils (FOAF), it is the purpose of FOAFDrive which helps you to generate such a file, with XFN embedded (but no editing for the moment) allowing you to put this file on your blog for exemple. Wordpress.com for instance supports XFN link on its blogs.
- Google Social Graph is an API, not a data format, about discovering decentralized social graph over the web through XFN and FOAF declarations, If you have created a FOAF file using FOAFDrive or another generator or if you use web services which are currently using FOAF access (flickr for example), this API is able to retrieve this information allowing you to work with it.
- Plaxo PortableContacts is firstly an API to exchange contacts information between machines, compatible with Google Opensocial. The result format has relational capabilities but very limited, as i know there is no relation qualification as XFN for instance.

I think we need to define a formal set of basic and extended RDF vocabularies who are able to define a profil and a social graph.

FOAF is about common profil data and distributed social network framework, XFN is about relation qualification, this couple is a very basic set, we could state to add geo for localization for exemple, close the set and tag it as "Common DSN Framework". Perhaps there is a need to extend the standard FOAF fields to be compatible with PortableContacts and OpenSocial.. After that it could have defined a second 'extended' set with specific vocabularies about competences, review, main categorized interests and others...

So, if you are searching for a data format in order to implement an import/export feature anywhere, look at FOAF fields and see if it is sufficient for your needs.. If you have no time to spend with coding on this part, look at portablecontacts or opensocial...

I can't help you anymore on the topic, there are some higher skilled people here about this if you have more questions.. ;)
Hope it can help you.

Regards.
Loïc (not silva :) )

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 1:30 PM, thomas <youngm...@googlemail.com> wrote:

Hi Silva,

So we have a 3 competing technologies:

XFN and Google social graph <--> FOAF  <--> portable contact

I know portableconatct is used by Plaxo.
XFN and Google social graph is supported by Google.

Is there any one using FOAF.

Am I wrong to make these assumption.

[thomas]

Than you very much Loic for your helps

[melvster]

You may want to look at this:

http://planb.nicecupoftea.org/2008/11/18/foaf-slurper/

On Nov 7, 12:35 pm, "neilninht...@gmail.com" <neilninht...@gmail.com>
wrote: