Social Graph Portability

There's a lot of talk these days about social graph portability so I guess it's time that I explore the xri based idea that has been running around my head for the last couple of years. This post probably isn't going to go into any more depth than I have already thought about but I hope it will inspire me to go think some more....

The basic idea is this... I am =andy, you are =steve, I can create any number of directed, typed, relationships to you by using the extensibility of the =andy namespace....

=andy*(=steve) establishes a generic relationship.

=andy*(+friend)*(=steve) establishes a friend relationship.

=andy*(+trusted)*(=steve) establishes an actionable relationship.

Let me point out the thing that I think are cool about this...

• These entries MUST have been added and/or removed by the entity that controls the =andy name space.
• Typed relationships can take advantage of the 'dictionary' space (xris that start with '+') and therefore solve a lot of the semantic mapping issues.
• By creating this entry in my name space this relationship has its own i-number, I have very literally reified the relationship. The relationship can have metadata, services and any other quality of a top level entity.
• The target of the relationship can USE this identity; =Steve can assert =andy*(+trusted)*(=steve) as their identity... the fact that xri resolution for this succeeds 'prooves' that =andy established the relationship... You can xri resolve =steve for whatever flavor of authN service that you are interested in so the 'user' can 'proove' they are =steve... I AM =steve who has a (+trusted) relationship with =andy.
• Group management IS relationship management =andy*(+family)*(=richard).
• Relationships are STRONGLY directed. An assertion about a relationship with =steve means only as much as you decide to put on it. Did you know that me and Bill Gates are best buddies and that I'm married to Angelina Jolie?
  

A couple of problems with this as it stands:

• It is ALL public. Maybe once I have finished reading the ID-WSF Service Discovery Spec I'll have a better idea how to mix and match the public and private parts of this in a more privacy protecting way.
• There is no native xri way to query the graph. Even if I wanted it to be public there's no (currently speced) way to get all of =andy's +trusted people.
  

Despite the obvious problems, I think the strengths still make this something worth exploring and the problems something worth trying to solve. Part of why I like this approach is that using some simple wildcards lets me address and permission based on the graph in the same syntax...

• When I sign up for the genealogical service it is understood that write rights are granted to =andy and =andy*(+family)*($children) and read rights are given to =andy*(+family)*($descendants)
  
• I can send a message to =andy*(+trusted)*($all)
  

I guess that what I'm trying to say is this.... I don't see the Identity Layer and the Social Graph as 2 separate things. I think it's well accepted that any meaningful abstract identity system MUST reify relationships as top level objects. It must be an Identity AND Relationship layer....

We must not get confused between the world and the map of the world. It's great that with todays technology we can create these interactive maps that let you:

• show all the houses and the roads
• now turn off the roads and show the electric grid
• now only show the sewer lines

But that isn't what exists... the connections between the house and the grid are real and solid. When we talk about the Social Graph we need to be clear if we are talking about the map of the graph or the actual reality it is meant to represent.

Option 5

I was reading this post in Phil's blog, as I do, and had to get this thought out of my head...

Phil says:

There are basically four options for deployment, as far as I can tell:

1. Sell software that gets installed on customer hardware
2. Package your code onto a hardware appliance and sell the box
3. Package your code onto a virtual appliance and sell the appliance
4. Sell a hosted solution

All of these have advantages and disadvantages and each is appropriate in different circumstances.

Phil goes on to describe some of the pros and cons of each of these options... It's a good read. There is however another solution; well it's not really another solution, it's really just a variation on 4... But it doesn't have the problems described in Phil's post....

5. Have Wingaa host it.

Now this also has pros and cons like any of the other solutions... but is an option. Wingaa is all about High Availability, High Security and Non-Intrusive Identity Service Hosting by specialists in Privacy and Trust. That is our business... We want to take the support calls, keep the geographically disperse secure data centers in hot fail over mode. We want to persist all that PII and take on that liability, that's the challenge that we have set ourselves... Don't get me wrong, we plan to charge you for it. Security and availability and lots of liability insurance doesn't come cheap... but if you have a business that needs those qualities we can probably do it as inexpensively as you can do it yourself, without you having to do the work.

There are business for whom this fundamentally isn't an option, but there are also business for whom this is the perfect solution. You have the killer business idea, THE next social app, we have the capability to not only run it for you but to run it in an environment that can be trusted to protect the privacy of each individual above ANY business imperative. You can deploy quickly and cheaply into high production value mode without the burden of the upfront cost. You can look instantly credible to enterprise partners.... they'll say... oh, you use the Wingaa network.... GREAT!

Wow... what started as a simple observation that maybe we could help, in some cases, just became a my marketing guys worst nightmare.... Andy runs wild with words. (I think maybe the fever has come back)

What WIngaa Does....

So the message on the Wingaa site still isn't simple enough. I'm going to try to fix that this week.

What Wingaa does is host services for other companies. There is more and more demand on internet companies to offer their customers more and more services. We help companies satisfy that demand with minimal cost and effort on their part.

That's a start... let's see what ends up on the site.

Looking good...

The Wingaa website has been launched. Check it out at www.wingaa.com

XRI utils

One of the things that I look for with new technologies is tools and utilities being developed that will make the technology easy to use. This week 2 such utilities have appeared...

Markus Sabadello of Parity and @freeXRI has developed an XRI Resolution Client for the iPhone... You can learn more about it and download it from here.

I also shared with a couple of people... and now with you, this Mac Dashboard Widget that lets you look into an XRDS document without having to remember the proxy resolver syntax.