On 6 July 2010 16:27, Markus Sabadello
<address@hidden> wrote:
I have met David a number of times and like him a lot, but am I the only one feeling that
Not had the pleasure, but he seems like a great guy. We've been discussing this stuff on mailing lists as long back as the start of Data Portability, and before that, Social Network Portability. I remember there was a post on open social networks (at that time seemed a distant dream) with David, Tim Berners-Lee and a few other, was my first introduction to FOAF, something that caused me to explore it in more detail, since I'd always been a skeptic. Tho, since then I've never looked back!
"Facebook’s Senior Open Programs Manager"
sounds like a contradiction in itself? :)
I've heard that concern, but I really think facebook have done extraordinary things for the open web (and the web!) in the last year.
Anyway, yes, good interview, although it would have been more fun if the host had been a bit more aggressive.
Regarding Open Graph Protocol, yes of course "everyone can use it" and it is "simple enough for any web developer" and there is "nothing specific to Facebook", etc., but as we know from OpenID, those attributes by themselves don't guarantee that the network will get any more decentralized. Time will tell.
It's true facebook uses the ogp, but anyone can use it. It's a true
distributed web scale system. It's ground breaking stuff.
I'm a fan of openid, but the core aim of openid became centered around adoption. Some ground was given up to the bigcos in terms of patent assertions, preferred technologies, branding etc. in exchange for advocacy, marketing and mass adoption. I dont think it's a bad thing at all, though I guess the GNU world knows better than any, that adoption does not always mean better.
But today 'open' is the standard pattern, where once it was only a dream. Additionally, OpenID *never* really had a strong grass roots element, like say GNU ore Apache, so it wasnt really taken over by bigcos, but rather they were a constant element. Ostatus seems a slightly different mix of both worlds. That's my current take anyway, you may have other views, and more clarity arrives all the time...
OGP on the other hand is pure web standards, W3C, and therefore, royalty free. It has a good mix of adoption from hackers, academia and now larger firms. Of course it will become part of HTML5 and therefore, pretty ubiquitous. The scale of this kind of thing gets me excited that we can, not only make silos talk to each other (a very valuable goal), but that we can start to stitch a social element into the very fabric of the web itself, as it was always intended to be.
The web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect — to help people work together — and not as a technical toy. The ultimate goal of the Web is to support and improve our weblike existence in the world. We clump into families, associations, and companies. We develop trust across the miles and distrust around the corner -- Tim Berners-Lee
Markus