What can I do now?
Julian Bond
with DP?
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Julian Bond E&MSN: julian_bond at voidstar.com M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173
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Preserve Nature
Julian Bond
>If you run a website, what can be done now to prepare for co-operating
>with DP?
Here's some ideas.
1) Implement OpenID as a consuming site for both Login and Signup.
Support AX for signup to pre-populate the account signup form. If you're
thinking of being an OpenID provider think very carefully about whether
that's a good idea and you want the responsibility of long term support.
2) Build indexed search on your members against OpenID and mbox_sha1sum
as well as email address. Importing lists of contacts are likely to use
these. Look to Octazen for email import libraries.
3) Implement XFN on all relevant links that appear on profile pages and
lists of contacts pages. rel="me" and rel="contact"
4) Implement microformats on profile pages using hCard
5) Implement lots of machine readable export. RSS, Atom, FOAF[8], APML,
etc etc. Put in the auto-discovery to all this stuff in the HEAD section
of web pages, but also put glyphs to the same files in the visible HTML.
6) Build APIs to allow your data to be updated from programs using REST
(GET, PUT, DELETE). Copy and use well known APIs from elsewhere. eg
Atom-Pub, Twitter
7) Where the APIs require Authentication use oAuth. If this proves hard,
use plain old HTTP AUTH.
8) Structure your FOAF as one file per member. That file should consist
of:-
- A main section about that owner only, with all their data. Include all
the data you can that also appears on public HMTL pages. Don't include
email address unless it's shown publicly, but do include the
mbox_sha1sum
- A list of "Friends" consisting of just a unique ID (mbox_sha1sum,
OpenID) and a seeAlso link to their FOAF file.
Josh Patterson
stuff laid down, and then possible figure out the best way to make all
of it auto-discoverable. Might want to look at ways for new startups
get get each of those done, but quickly too --- to do it all is a lot
of work that a lot of startups dont have extra time for, so we need to
find ways to bring down the Total Cost of implementation (stock libs,
easy ready made apis, etc)
Josh
On Feb 4, 7:10 am, Julian Bond <julian_b...@voidstar.com> wrote:
> Julian Bond <julian_b...@voidstar.com> Sun, 3 Feb 2008 21:28:59
Richard Pendergast
than likely put a website somewhere very near to what will be in the
eventual technical blueprint - near enough that as more of the
blueprint is completed and released the work required to comply would
be relatively small anyway.
im beginning to become infected byjulian's enthusiasm . sit back and
think about it for a second - since dataportability is about portable
data, anything that brings us closer to that reality is a win, and is,
in the long run, good for the community.
josh is right though in that while the points in this list are
achievable for larger teams, they are not for smaller teams and
startups who in most cases are stretched for time and resources as it
is anyway.
so, in this case, the question again comes up, "what can i do now"?
the obvious answer, and the one that keeps being presented is that you
can contribute to the technical blueprint discussions and aid in the
specification design. the technical blueprint is what will eventually
define dataportability, and will be the single greatest achievement of
dataportability. however, for those without the experience, background
or knowledge to feel they have something to contribute, there needs to
be an alternative.
several groups already looking to create a reference implementation of
dp, and now that the discovery spec has been released for public
consumption, they have something to build. if these groups produce,
"(stock libs, easy ready made apis, etc)", then the resulting toolset
can be used by startups and small teams to get their own
implementations over the line without the time and money commitment
currently required.
the 3 i can think of, just off the top of my head, are:
practical portability - http://practicalportability.org/about/
shared universe - http://www.shareduniverse.net/
diso project - http://diso-project.org/
in the interests of disclosure, i have to mention that i actually set
up practical portability, but i have been making an effort as part of
the implementation team to get to know others that are out there, and
to work towards collaboration where we can. ive spoken with stephen of
shared universe who is a great advocate of dataportability, but so far
know of diso project only by association. ill be looking to contact
the guys involved over the next couple of days.
these are all great initiatives, and there are more out there. check
them out, and maybe get on board with somebody. the discovery spec was
just released, so everybody is starting from the same point. be part
of the doing as well as the designing.
richard
Jon
Inspired from this discussion:
http://protobuilt.com/2008/01/15/developers-10-things-you-can-do-now-for-data-portability/
Jon
On Feb 4, 6:53 pm, "Richard Pendergast" <richard.penderg...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> in the interests of disclosure, i have to mention that i actually set
> up practical portability, but i have been making an effort as part of
> the implementation team to get to know others that are out there, and
> to work towards collaboration where we can. ive spoken with stephen of
> shared universe who is a great advocate of dataportability, but so far
> know of diso project only by association. ill be looking to contact
> the guys involved over the next couple of days.
>
> these are all great initiatives, and there are more out there. check
> them out, and maybe get on board with somebody. the discovery spec was
> just released, so everybody is starting from the same point. be part
> of the doing as well as the designing.
>
> richard
>