Slashdot Mirror

[..] but it's not a sure thing that the researchers now developing the idea will get it right.

I'm working on a thing called "Local Names."

It points names to URL's, but you can use that for identifying purposes. Especially if you mix & match with FOAF.

There are no central registries.

Names are based on the community namespace, rather than some central server.

(That means you don't have to pay me $25, and can address your friends by their first name.)

And soon your buddy lists will cooperate with your more-general contact management data via FOAF. Having to keep several buddy lists synced up, plus one or more of Orkut, Friendster, etc., is just a huge pain that could be solved, if the companies involved saw the potential for an improved user experience.

Scott

20:21 Central
While we scramble behind the scenes to put things back together, we'll share the slashdot love and link to other sites where you can get more information about FOAF.

FOAF Info:

• rdfweb.org
• foaf-project.org
• The FOAF FAQ (from rdfweb)

FOAF Tools:

• FOAF-A-Matic
• FOAFnaut (needs SVG plugin)
• FOAF Explorer

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

19:14 Central
Oh hell. We got slashdotted. And the main site wasn't even running the current code revision. Back in a bit.

20:21 Central
While we scramble behind the scenes to put things back together, we'll share the slashdot love and link to other sites where you can get more information about FOAF.

FOAF Info:

• rdfweb.org
• foaf-project.org
• The FOAF FAQ (from rdfweb)

FOAF Tools:

• FOAF-A-Matic
• FOAFnaut (needs SVG plugin)
• FOAF Explorer

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

19:14 Central
Oh hell. We got slashdotted. And the main site wasn't even running the current code revision. Back in a bit.

FOAF documents are, in essence, machine-readable home pages.

People have been working on getting FOAF into Slashdot (or at least slash code). There's some information on the RDFWeb wiki. One day the posts will wither away and it will be YA social network site :-)

I have gone on to create a basic FOAF-file. That's Semantic Web vaporware project. Well, it's not vaporware, since it works, and it is pretty cool. There's even SlashFoaf, so create your FOAF RDF today!

Picture sending is definitely possible (I've received/sent pics to/from others plenty of times), most Bluetooth phones tend to be higher end devices with cameras anyway, so a picture of the current environment is trivial to send.

As for social networking, that's already being looked at, the Friend-of-a-Friend project people (social networking based on open format XML/RDF files) are already looking at FoafMobile with Bluetooth being a major component.

I just set up a wiki on trust metrics evaluation.

The goal of this project is to review, understand, code and compare on same data all the trust metrics proposed so far.

I'm a PhD student and this is my phd research proposal (Trust-aware Decentralized Recommender Systems) and it is very related to all this concerns (trust, reputation, decentralization, blogs, recommender system, ...)

Personally I think the more promising path to follow is FOAF (Friend Of A Friend) format (see the project blog). There are also 2 extensions (1) (2) to incorporate trust into FOAF files.
By the way, here is my foaf file. You can add me to your "knows" list if you like.

Ok, so now you can check the wiki on trust metrics evaluation and add anything you think should be there and there isn't.
Please, note that I have just opened the wiki and I still have some problem with the installation (there are 2 conflicting python installations and I'm not root of the machine) but the basic functionalities are working. Hope to continue the discussion on the wiki! Paolo

Blogdex and Daypop already are close to this, by keeping track of what the current popular links are. Every time a weblog links to something, it's a vote for that URL. That's the closest to democratization of the media if I've seen yet.

The only thing that needs to happen to match your view is personalization through a web of trust. Perhaps a person's FOAF defines who's opinions they value, and their RSS Aggregregators will rate stories accordingly. I think NewsMonster is working on something like this, but I don't know if it's implemented yet.

In much the same way as 6 degrees of kevin bacon works, I'd venture to say that you can find more than half of all useful web sites within six degrees of web linking. The interesting thing will be that blogs do form their own little distinct cluster. This also applies to other aspects of computer networks, as well as certain human beings.

Check it out: If you could get everybody to enact it, what a great idea. Implementation, just a minor problem

Take an army of the recently-described feral hunting robots . To each robot, add a GPS chip and wireless mesh networking .

Give the people and dogs smart name tags , and have your dogs exchange your "business card" with the other smart name tags. Publish the FOAF url in it, so you can immediately check for compatibility and give the new information to the dogs.

Study the discovered FOAF files , each describing individual traits ("attributes").

Instruct the feral robots to find other people with compatible personalities , but to stay near you. They'll roam around, seeking people whose interests relate to yours.

For bonus points, add solar panels to generate power as it roams around, and electronic boundaries to keep it in safe areas, away from motor traffic.

Anyway, my new sites will have RDF. But it is being worked on, there's nothing to see yet... :-)

Anyway, I think you would find at least something if you start spidering at e.g. .