Thoughts on the Social Graph

Jamie found an excellent story about the trouble with social graphs. The author discusses the proliferation of social networking websites, the annoying problems this creates, and proposes an open solution to much of the problem. Essentially he is talking about an API for all those relationship systems not under the control of any single commercial entity, coupled with a shared login system. Had things like this been popularized a half a decade ago, we'd be looking at a different internet.

Comments

what i don't understand about slashdot

[circletimessquare]

is you have the same crowd who often pillories things like a us national id and microsoft's passport, but are quick and happy to embrace an open login system like this, and bemoan things like IM systems that don't talk to each other

huh?

universal id is universal id folks. it's the same thing

someone might point out that one is open and free, and the other is under the control of a central authority. what are you smoking?

you don't get it: any kind of universal id is open to the same kinds of abuses you could appreciate if it were microsoft or george bush behind the plan. it's the same tension between convenience and privacy/security, regardless of the entity behind the universal id

the slashdot crowd seems to be schizophrenic on the concept of universal id. work it out philosophically, figure it out, and adopt an intellectually consistent point of view