What is the Socknet Really
From The Socknet
All revolutionary quotables aside, the Socknet is a specification for a decentralized social network.
Like a traditional social network, it supports communication among a group of friends on the Internet.
Unlike social networks that have gone before, it includes the power to communicate with the websites that its users are already involved in throughout the web. This runs the gamut from blogs, to forums, to Wiki's, to photo and video sites, to other social networks.
The most important part of the Socknet is its decentralized nature. A user can use any provider and still connect to friends that use other providers. This creates the competition necessary to let social networks actually thrive. Despite media hype, they are suffocating right now because of the lack of interoperability.
The decentralized nature also ensures that all web developers can take part in the social network revolution. Anyone capable of creating and running a nontrivial website is capable of running a Socknet provider and innovating.
Social networks must open up if they are to have a viable future and the chance to make a real impact on the world.
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How does it work?
A brief run down of the workings of the Socknet.
A user signs up with a Socknet provider.
When a user signs up with a provider it provides him with an OpenID, a username which can be used on any participating website in the world.
The Socknet provider then attaches its own hidden information in the user's OpenID so that websites and other Socknet providers can find the user's Socknet profile and interact with it.
In practice this is simple: the user logs into websites using his OpenID.
The user makes friends.
Users are identified by OpenID's. A user can make friends either by telling his Socknet provider about his friends' OpenID's, or by finding them through other friends' profiles.
Once a user has friends, he can communicate with them and they are also available in a list for friends and websites to view. A Socknet provider may give the user any amount of control over which sites and friends can access his information.
The user uses the web.
The Socknet's greatest strength is that instead of having apps, it simply allows existing websites to connect and access necessary information. In this way it is able to make the whole web a social network.
When a user logs in to an OpenID-enabled website, that website may check to see if the user is a Socknet user. If he is, the website may choose to post messages to the user's Socknet provider which will be visible to the user (and sometimes his friends) on his profile.
A common example is a forum website. If the user posts on a forum, the forum may send a message to the user's Socknet provider about that activity. If someone replies to the user later, the forum may send another message about the reply.
The forum may also accept replies posted through the Socknet. Or it may choose to skip this option for simplicity or data integrity (ie, it may have a well-regulated posting system of its own).
Finally, the website may choose to access the user's friends, messages, and other services to enhance the user experience. And as mentioned above, the user can restrict any of this information if he's concerned about privacy.
The websites connect.
If a website registers with a user, it may store information about what kind of web protocols it supports.
Later, other websites may search the user's list of registered websites to see which support a given protocol.
A common example is a photo manipulation website. The photo manipulation website may search the user's website list to find websites where the user keeps his photos. If it finds any, it may present those photos to the user for editing.
This feature is, hopefully, the one that will inspire the most new ideas. The ability for websites to interact hasn't really reached its potential, yet. With a service like the Socknet, it finally has a channel to connect through.
Other Good Stuff
Some items that make the Socknet awesome:
- The Socknet is light-weight and flexible. It has no requirements about how information should be shown.
- The messaging system supports rich content using HTML. But providers can filter as much as they like. They can even strip all of the HTML if they prefer.
- Users can comment on anything*. Friends will see it, but the original creator of the thing is free to show the comment or not.
- *Anything means anything on the whole wide web and any message in the system. Anything with a web address. Anything.
- The Socknet specification supports two-way friendships and one-way subscriptions.
- The Socknet is nearly spam-proof. It has a single weak spot that is low-impact and is patched with an easy-to-use spam reporting system.
The Motivation for the Socknet
There are several systems either existing or proposed that are similar to the Socknet. The simplest among them is a patchwork of existing protocols that have proved useful. These are insufficient to provide such requirements as fine-grained privacy. The most complex among them is ultimately a platform for applications. This implies an objective to "host the web", something we don't need.
The Socknet's objective is to provide all the framework necessary for a social network like those existing (MySpace, Facebook, etc) and none of the cruft. There are no applications because the web already provides for applications. There is messaging because that is the major objective of users. The protocol is as trim as possible to encourage development from all angles, both provider and service.
There is competition for the title of "the distributed social network". And I think this protocol has a chance because of its strengths. This can be the "grassroots" protocol.
All it needs now is a following.
See Also
- The Socknet Philosophy
- The Socknet is the last social network
- The Socknet is not about the Socknet
- Ok, but What is the Socknet, Really?
