Comments on: Social Network Aggregation http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/ Tech, Entrepreneurship, and Venture Capital in New York City Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:39:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Andrew Parker http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-45073 Andrew Parker Tue, 13 Feb 2007 21:15:44 +0000 http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-45073 Dave, Have you seen Mugshot.org's login process. By default, they do a email confirmation form of login. You can login with a password if you hit "alt-p" or click a small link, but, by default, you have to use a confirmation email every time. It's an interesting solution to the "forgot my password" problem. It's a bit cumbersome for me, but at least they're thinking outside the box. Dave,

Have you seen Mugshot.org’s login process. By default, they do a email confirmation form of login. You can login with a password if you hit “alt-p” or click a small link, but, by default, you have to use a confirmation email every time. It’s an interesting solution to the “forgot my password” problem. It’s a bit cumbersome for me, but at least they’re thinking outside the box.

]]> By: dave mcclure http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-45032 dave mcclure Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:49:12 +0000 http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-45032 i'm not against better tools / portability for social networks, nor against OpenID per se, however i just think these are 2nd order issues for most people that come after the more basic fundamental issues (like forgotten passwords). i certainly agree such tools could be useful, however in order to get mass adoption they need to be a hell of lot simpler / more usable / automatic than most stuff i've seen so far. also they're fighting an uphill battle against the major platform providers [mostly] siloed offerings. anyway, i don't want to rain on anyone's parade... if they develop something that works, i'm all in. - dave i’m not against better tools / portability for social networks, nor against OpenID per se, however i just think these are 2nd order issues for most people that come after the more basic fundamental issues (like forgotten passwords).

i certainly agree such tools could be useful, however in order to get mass adoption they need to be a hell of lot simpler / more usable / automatic than most stuff i’ve seen so far. also they’re fighting an uphill battle against the major platform providers [mostly] siloed offerings.

anyway, i don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade… if they develop something that works, i’m all in.

- dave

]]> By: Andrew Parker http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-45025 Andrew Parker Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:08:30 +0000 http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-45025 Lee, Seems like Gaim, Trillian, or other IM client consolidation solutions are in the best position to do something like what you describe towards the end of your comment... but I think closed standards will keep this from happening for a long time. I want Exchange email because of the high-quality blackberry sync tech, but that means I'm locked into Outlook. Similarly, Skype's consistent efforts to obfuscate their protocol force me to use two IM clients (Skype and Gaim). An all-encompassing messaging solution feels a long way off in this environment. Lee,

Seems like Gaim, Trillian, or other IM client consolidation solutions are in the best position to do something like what you describe towards the end of your comment… but I think closed standards will keep this from happening for a long time. I want Exchange email because of the high-quality blackberry sync tech, but that means I’m locked into Outlook. Similarly, Skype’s consistent efforts to obfuscate their protocol force me to use two IM clients (Skype and Gaim). An all-encompassing messaging solution feels a long way off in this environment.

]]> By: Andrew Parker http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-45024 Andrew Parker Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:01:38 +0000 http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-45024 All these points about the context are great. I think context, style and attitude of a network are paramount, and portability is a dream that ignores these context-specific characteristics. This position is closer to danah boyd's perspective in the range of opinions in this debate. All these points about the context are great. I think context, style and attitude of a network are paramount, and portability is a dream that ignores these context-specific characteristics. This position is closer to danah boyd’s perspective in the range of opinions in this debate.

]]> By: Fred http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-45018 Fred Tue, 13 Feb 2007 14:08:51 +0000 http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-45018 There's obviously a middle ground in this debate - between the teens who supposedly want to throw away their password and the Techcrunch crowd that desires real interoperability. It is important that OpenID start simple, and start by addressing the actual needs of a userbase. For a start - OpenID blog commenting. OpenID allows verified, SSO-based commenting all around the web, and soon it will be integrated core into many free blog platforms. That's not too difficult or awkward for early-adopters to get, and it doesn't require the wholesale consolidation of identity or anything else like that. It just solves a single problem. If we can divorce the technology from the expectations (which are unfortunately colored by technologies like Passport) OpenID makes sense. It needn't take over the world from day one, and it won't. These changes come gradually. If three years ago I had told you that every teenager in america would care about rich metadata, would you believe me? Well, they do - and the rich metadata they put so much work into is song information in iTunes. And a whole host of other things now. OpenID alone isn't the solution - but when integrated properly into a context, it will be a solution, one that makes sense to many people. There’s obviously a middle ground in this debate - between the teens who supposedly want to throw away their password and the Techcrunch crowd that desires real interoperability. It is important that OpenID start simple, and start by addressing the actual needs of a userbase. For a start - OpenID blog commenting. OpenID allows verified, SSO-based commenting all around the web, and soon it will be integrated core into many free blog platforms. That’s not too difficult or awkward for early-adopters to get, and it doesn’t require the wholesale consolidation of identity or anything else like that. It just solves a single problem.

If we can divorce the technology from the expectations (which are unfortunately colored by technologies like Passport) OpenID makes sense. It needn’t take over the world from day one, and it won’t. These changes come gradually. If three years ago I had told you that every teenager in america would care about rich metadata, would you believe me? Well, they do - and the rich metadata they put so much work into is song information in iTunes. And a whole host of other things now. OpenID alone isn’t the solution - but when integrated properly into a context, it will be a solution, one that makes sense to many people.

]]> By: Lee http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-44948 Lee Tue, 13 Feb 2007 03:35:25 +0000 http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-44948 It would be great if people's "social data" or "people data" could be connected up in the ways that make sense for how they use them, but also divided up based on what makes sense for that person, especially based on context (friends, work, family, music) For me, my LinkedIn helps keep track of people I meet through networking, but I can't connect it to my address book, Blackberry, IM, or notes I keep about who I contacted, who I have to follow up with etc. (37signals announced an app called Highrise that is supposed to help with this). It's especially frustrating to use services that are closed communities, so if someone's not actually a member of LinkedIn, tough, you can't add them to my page, making it less useful for keeping track of a network. My blogging "social data" is scattered across MyBlogLog, all the individual blogs I read and comment on, and the specialized recommender services like last.fm. Also, right now the social networks seem to focus most on letting me create a page that links to all my friends, rather than on the actual communication which happens via blog, IM, email, phone, etc. Maybe there could be some kind of app that can coordinate all of this in one place, or connect to all the services and have them talk to each other. It would be great if people’s “social data” or “people data” could be connected up in the ways that make sense for how they use them, but also divided up based on what makes sense for that person, especially based on context (friends, work, family, music) For me, my LinkedIn helps keep track of people I meet through networking, but I can’t connect it to my address book, Blackberry, IM, or notes I keep about who I contacted, who I have to follow up with etc. (37signals announced an app called Highrise that is supposed to help with this). It’s especially frustrating to use services that are closed communities, so if someone’s not actually a member of LinkedIn, tough, you can’t add them to my page, making it less useful for keeping track of a network. My blogging “social data” is scattered across MyBlogLog, all the individual blogs I read and comment on, and the specialized recommender services like last.fm. Also, right now the social networks seem to focus most on letting me create a page that links to all my friends, rather than on the actual communication which happens via blog, IM, email, phone, etc. Maybe there could be some kind of app that can coordinate all of this in one place, or connect to all the services and have them talk to each other.

]]> By: Alex Iskold http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-44932 Alex Iskold Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:52:56 +0000 http://blog.andrewparker.net/2007/02/12/social-network-aggregation/#comment-44932 I think the right answer falls off if I put on my engineering hat :) There is a basic set of information about me that make sense to replicate - my name, age, address, etc. Also, my books, music, etc. picks (although, possibly not quite, see below). But... each of these social networks focuses on a different dimension of a person. MySpace is sort of all encompassing thingy for the wild. LinkedIn is different, Flixster and Last.fm are specialized, then Facebook is sort of clean MySpace possible in the future like LinkedIn, but for now much more a hanging out place. All of them are about putting a different skin or in programming terms, view on my data. So the talk of the consolidation is great, but what exactly, besides the login and possibly some basic information about a person that we are looking to consolidate? Alex I think the right answer falls off if I put on my engineering hat :)

There is a basic set of information about me that make sense to replicate - my name, age, address, etc. Also, my books, music, etc. picks (although, possibly not quite, see below).

But… each of these social networks focuses on a different dimension of a person. MySpace is sort of all encompassing thingy for the wild. LinkedIn is different, Flixster and Last.fm are specialized, then Facebook is sort of clean MySpace possible in the future like LinkedIn, but for now much more a hanging out place. All of them are about putting a different skin or in programming terms, view on my data.

So the talk of the consolidation is great, but what exactly, besides the login and possibly some basic information about a person that we are looking to consolidate?

Alex

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