Acronym Soup
                         A bluffer’s guide to Social Web standards




                                               Dan Brickley
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
• the nice thing about standards



Tuesday, March 9, 2010
ActivityStreams
  Microformats                                           DAP
                                      hCard                     FOAF
                                                  Atom
                         OpenSocial                       XFN
                                          OAuth
     Text                                         OAuth-WRAP
                GRDDL            XMPP/Jabber
                                                  Open Microblogging
    RSS1
                                      RDFa
                   FOAF+SSL                         Social Graph API

 Salmon                           Atom Publishing Protocol
     pubsubhubbub                          JSON           W3C Widgets
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Other nice things

                    • Extraordinary potential for impact
                    • Interesting people and problems
                    • ‘Interesting’ timescales (CSS ’96, RDF ’97...)
                    • Figuring out how it all fits together
                     • So how do SocialWeb specs fit SemWeb?

Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Semantic Web &
                             Modesty
                    • Immodest goal: describe everything
                    • Modest approach: share that work
                    • Describing stuff is our core business
                     • others do authentication, UI, APIs, ...
                     • how to keep track of ‘those others’?

Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Memory tricks
                    • Who made it? people / companies / org
                    • “Like x but made by y” (OpenSocial)
                    • For situations like y (eg. “trusted access to
                         private photos for t-shirt printing site”)
                    • “the Password Anti-Pattern”
                    • Another name for x (XMPP = Jabber)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Composition and
                              analogy
                    • XMPP uses XML for Instant Messaging
                    • OpenSocial uses OAuth for trusted access
                    • FOAF+SSL uses SSL for authentication
                    • OAuth-WRAP is like OAuth but using SSL
                    • Microdata is like RDFa made by
                         microformatters
                    • XMPP as middleware: SOAP meets IRC
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Quick example
                    • Open MicroBlogging (OMB) is a draft spec
                         to federate Twitter-like services
                    • It uses OAuth
                    • StatusNet (opensource software, company)
                    • StatusNet previously ‘laconi.ca’
                    • Flagship site: identi.ca (lots of FOAF too)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Find reasons to care
                    • With OAuth, I can authenticate Twitter
                         uses and access their stuff & act as them
                         • With OpenID, millions of users can login
                           by proving they control URLs
                           • what are the business and UI reasons
                             they aren’t doing this more?
                           • Link to trust/provenance on SemWeb?
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
• With W3C Widgets, I can write apps in
                         HTML/.js that run on mobile handsets
                         • (..ooO “like iPhone but standardised?”)
                    • and with W3C DAP APIs, I can request
                         access geo, addressbook and calendar
                         descriptions of their life
                    • With OpenSocial I can run similar code as
                         a Hyves or LinkedIn add-on, with trusted
                         access to Portable Contacts addressbook

Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Trustyness
                    • with the Google Social Graph API, I can ask
                         who uses XFN or FOAF to say “http://
                         www.youtube.com/user/danbri is me”
                         • and check if the claim is reciprocated
                          • at Web scale, parsing RDF/XML with
                             Redland Raptor toolkit
                             • (RDFa might be harder - but why?
                             • ..oOO(so if x was an openid, and x=y...?)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Data flow

                    • with the Atom Publishing Protocol, I can
                         publish content on thousands of blogging
                         sites
                         • if I have a user’s username and password
                          • what if I could negotiate an OAuth
                             token instead?



Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Tips

                    • Make time to experiment and hack
                    • And participate in blogs, mailing lists
                    • You absorb info quicker when you know
                         the people, attitudes, culture of a project




Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Acronym Soup

  • 1.
    Acronym Soup A bluffer’s guide to Social Web standards Dan Brickley Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 2.
    • the nicething about standards Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 3.
    ActivityStreams Microformats DAP hCard FOAF Atom OpenSocial XFN OAuth Text OAuth-WRAP GRDDL XMPP/Jabber Open Microblogging RSS1 RDFa FOAF+SSL Social Graph API Salmon Atom Publishing Protocol pubsubhubbub JSON W3C Widgets Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 4.
    Other nice things • Extraordinary potential for impact • Interesting people and problems • ‘Interesting’ timescales (CSS ’96, RDF ’97...) • Figuring out how it all fits together • So how do SocialWeb specs fit SemWeb? Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 5.
    Semantic Web & Modesty • Immodest goal: describe everything • Modest approach: share that work • Describing stuff is our core business • others do authentication, UI, APIs, ... • how to keep track of ‘those others’? Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 6.
    Memory tricks • Who made it? people / companies / org • “Like x but made by y” (OpenSocial) • For situations like y (eg. “trusted access to private photos for t-shirt printing site”) • “the Password Anti-Pattern” • Another name for x (XMPP = Jabber) Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 7.
    Composition and analogy • XMPP uses XML for Instant Messaging • OpenSocial uses OAuth for trusted access • FOAF+SSL uses SSL for authentication • OAuth-WRAP is like OAuth but using SSL • Microdata is like RDFa made by microformatters • XMPP as middleware: SOAP meets IRC Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 8.
    Quick example • Open MicroBlogging (OMB) is a draft spec to federate Twitter-like services • It uses OAuth • StatusNet (opensource software, company) • StatusNet previously ‘laconi.ca’ • Flagship site: identi.ca (lots of FOAF too) Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 9.
    Find reasons tocare • With OAuth, I can authenticate Twitter uses and access their stuff & act as them • With OpenID, millions of users can login by proving they control URLs • what are the business and UI reasons they aren’t doing this more? • Link to trust/provenance on SemWeb? Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 10.
  • 11.
    • With W3CWidgets, I can write apps in HTML/.js that run on mobile handsets • (..ooO “like iPhone but standardised?”) • and with W3C DAP APIs, I can request access geo, addressbook and calendar descriptions of their life • With OpenSocial I can run similar code as a Hyves or LinkedIn add-on, with trusted access to Portable Contacts addressbook Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 12.
    Trustyness • with the Google Social Graph API, I can ask who uses XFN or FOAF to say “http:// www.youtube.com/user/danbri is me” • and check if the claim is reciprocated • at Web scale, parsing RDF/XML with Redland Raptor toolkit • (RDFa might be harder - but why? • ..oOO(so if x was an openid, and x=y...?) Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 13.
    Data flow • with the Atom Publishing Protocol, I can publish content on thousands of blogging sites • if I have a user’s username and password • what if I could negotiate an OAuth token instead? Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 14.
    Tips • Make time to experiment and hack • And participate in blogs, mailing lists • You absorb info quicker when you know the people, attitudes, culture of a project Tuesday, March 9, 2010
  • 15.