fashions.org - we too looking at what we can do now

[aferl...@gmail.com]

I read the post below and that seems like a lot (cost) to get started.
We are a start up at fashions.org and looking as a first step to
promote and share cross site memberships. We had been planning to
independently develop an API in PHP to export and then re-import a
user's profile in XML format. The sites at each endpoint woud write an
adapter to map the internal variables to their db schemas.

Basically, we envisioned a first step where the user can save their
profile info in a common XML format to their PC and then re-import at
another participating site for quick membership or profile update. As
a second step, we are considering developing a secured method to
stream out the profile updates automatically to all the participating
sites the members belongs to (change in one site, automatically
updates at all sites).

We've been talking to other startup sites about this and several seem
interested in the idea. Our biggest issue in promoting the concept of
portable profiles is that it goes against the biz model of sites that
are ad based. We are not ad based, so we don't care about the island
issue and maximizing page views. We are a community theme site and
will continue to push forward with promoting and implementing an open
profile/content across community themed sites.

Andrew