Green Tea Ice Cream

A key component of what will be looked back on as ‘Web 3.0′ is the emergence of a real ‘Social Web’ - an internet with the protocols in place for one’s identities and relationships (social networks) to be completely (and securely) portable instead of the current gaggle of technically discreet social networks and standards.

There seems to be a kind of critical mass of thinking, commenting and (most importantly) concrete development going on in this area. Brad Fitzpatrick’s polemic on the social graph and the need for an open, non-profit approach seems to have set off a lot of waves with folk like Plaxo and Marc Canter (I also liked Marc’s ‘ID Stack Layers’ diagram which clarified a lot of the technology needed for a non-techie like myself). Brian Oberkirch has a great overview on why open standards for identity make good business sense and also on why OpenID is so important. It certainly got me off my arse to go off and complete my own OpenID registration. He also highlights the elephant in the room of open social network standards - privacy.

Like a lot of people in my demographic, I’m fascinated by Facebook - at the moment. But in the long (short) term, I’m not happy being locked into what Susan Merrit accurately describes as ‘just another social network’. So if one is convinced of the need to support and develop some form of open standard, what can one do if contributing code isn’t an option? Go and sign up for OpenID. And use it where possible. And keep yourself informed.