Hey & intro

[azeem azhar]

Hi everyone

Just a quick note to say 'hi'.

Am founder of PeerIndex (peerindex.net) - and we use and analyse the
like data on the Web.

A question: are the guys from Sharethis/Addtoany etc involved in
openlike? Would seem to make sense as they have such massive
distribution of basically the same functionality....


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[Nick Bert]

Hello, Nick Bert from ShareThis here, we are definitely "open" to
work with you on that "Like" button. How do we get started?

[lo_fye]

Hi Guys,

I'm Derek from http://www.OpenMarketplace.org - "Liberating
Marketplace Information".
We're happy to help however we can, either as part of the 3 working
groups proposed by NickMikhailovsky, or otherwise.

I very much agree that this is not just about social users &
usability, but also about providing ways for businesses to get metrics
about who is liking them (or disliking them). A business shouldn't
need to "be my friend" in order for them to know that I like them.
Everyone benefits from free and open access to social "sentiment"
information. I also agree that the solution must be 1-click-simple in
order for it to take off (I believe this is why OpenID has been such a
geeks-only endeavour). I also agree with Jeff Eddings & Rabbit, who
said we should strive not to reinvent the wheel, and sincerely hope
that Nathan doesn't drop OpenLike simply because he thinks that means
the job is already done. His insight has been incredibly valuable
throughout this forum.

I have seen many threads mention FOAF, but none specifically mention
creating an open Friendlist.
Without that, who would we be broadcasting these "Likes" to? Just to
the sites that host the content? Just to any array of sites that host
friendlists?
It seems to me that Facebook's core value is that they house your
friends list, and let you broadcast to it.
So don't we really need to replace that too?

Could we do so by using "Facebook Connect" to pull in a person's
entire friendlist, and then publish something to their stream that
says "I'm switching from facebook to the OpenLike network. It only
takes 1 click to transfer everything over. Click here to join." ?
I know Facebook says they own that info, but a) they've removed the
rule about how long 3rd party sites can cache their data; and b) there
is a court case ongoing right now regarding whether it's possible for
a company (facebook) to own your list of friends, or whether that list
is in fact your own. As long as it's contentious, we might be able to
do it. Of course, facebook could kill our API key in the meantime...

In order for OpenLike to take off, we are really going to need a few
things:
- a simple way to call for and make group decisions ( as simple as a
poll?)
- someone who gets to break the tie in the event that there are equal
votes both ways. Perhaps even a Jobs/Torvalds/Zuckerberg person who is
an extremist visionary with keen insight, who we all agree to follow
in the name of unified purpose.
- a wiki, or somewhere to succinctly list the outcomes of these
decisions, and future plans. It took me a couple hours to read all the
posts on this forum. Most people aren't willing to do that before
chiming in with their $0.02.
- a list of goals we would like to achieve. Perhaps the initial goals
could be set by the forum's most prominent participants: Nathan,
Rabbit, Alex Iskold, Sutter, Will Meyer, Kingsley, Jeff Eddings,
NickMikhailovsky, Aevans, & Laurent Eschenauer.
- a list of existing sites and protocols to explore, and pros & cons
of each with respect to our goals.
- collaborative spaces for the 3 working groups

One last thing I'd like to say in my first post here, is that one of
the reasons facebook dominates is its speed of development &
advancement. This is very hard to achieve with a distributed system.
It's hard to get everyone to upgrade when you want to do something
new. Plus, once you have N versions out there in use, it's very hard
for developers to integrate & inter-operate. There is something to be
said for having one central data-store... and thanks to the very
generous offer of Sutter@Quantcast, it looks like OpenLike could be in
a position to make that happen. Not to mention other offers by places
such as ShareThis and GetGlue, and more. If someone hasn't already
thanked them for their generosity, let me be the first. Your companies
just scored many points in my book!

Derek Martin

until there's a great open social network, here's my contact info:
http://geek.derekmartin.ca
http://www.facebook.com/lo.fye
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/misterderekmartin
http://careers.stackoverflow.com/derek-martin

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OpenMarketplace is about a future:
- where everyone has free and equal access to promote anything;
- where local, national, and international marketplaces' are equally
empowered;
- where relevant, reliable, timely information is freely available to
the marketplace;
- where providers and consumers have equal ability to voice their
opinions;
- where everyone is able to collaborate and engage in open
conversation;
- where the production and distribution of information is a
cooperative effort;
- where we all benefit from a new sustainable, efficient and
effective marketplace; and
- where the end game for marketplace participants is increased
information quality.

To achieve the future Open Marketplace, we must be guided by these
core principles:
- The commons is where all marketplace information belongs.
- Competing is good - sharing is better, because we all win.
- Duplication and fragmentation are the enemy - aggregation is
essential.
- The marketplace must set standards, and most importantly follow
them.
- Transparency of information is the air that sustains the open
marketplace.
- An identification system for everything, and everything with an ID.
- Every bit of information linking to the physical world.
- Information without engagement is futile.