FOAF: the 'friend of a friend' vocabulary

Puck

Sorry if this is in the wrong place folks (move it if you want LoLth) but I thought it was really cool when I found out about it and wouldn't mind a discussion on the topic.

FOAF is and XML/RDF vocabulary, which basically is used to hold information about a person, i.e. their name, nick, email address, pictures of them, websites relating to them, etc. and also information about people they know (this is where the "friend of a friend" part comes in). With this information it is possible to build online communities of people related in some way and to access information about them.

I'm very new to XML and RDF but I thought this was really cool when I found out about it. Since this is an online community I figured maybe some people here would like a discussion on the subject, it's potential uses, software already existing that uses it, cool ideas for software that could use it, etc.

Anyway here's the links:
FOAF
Create an FOAF description of yourself.
[ARTICLE]Finding Friends with XML and RDF

Talliesin

Well a nit-picking point to make is that it's an RDF vocabulary, so it can be used with n3 or other methods of communicating RDF as well as XML/RDF.

Thinking RDF == XML/RDF will cause all sorts of problems down the line, try not to fall into that trap.

Cloud

We're having the first international workshop on FOAF in Galway in September. I hope you'll attend.

As an aside, myself and Talliesin have vBFOAF almost ready.

John.
--

               1st Workshop on Friend of a Friend,
              Social Networking and the Semantic Web
                           (FOAF'2004)
              *1-2 September 2004, Galway, Ireland*,
                sponsored by SWAD-Europe and DERI
      <[url]http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe/events/foaf-galway/[/url]>

Introduction
------------

The  FOAF  (Friend  of  a  Friend  <[url]http://www.foaf-project.org/[/url]>)
project  explores  a  unique  combination  of  themes  from social
networking,  search engines, knowledge representation and software
development.  FOAF  was  designed  as  a practical experiment that
would  highlight  the  technical,  social  and business challenges
raised  by  the next generation of "Semantic" Web technology. Over
the  past few years, the FOAF developer community has been working
on   standards-based  techniques  for  publishing  and  harvesting
machine-readable  descriptions  of people, the links between them,
and  the  things they create and do. The working assumption of the
project  is  that  such techniques will underpin the deployment of
the  next  generation  of  Web  technology,  W3C's  "Semantic  Web".
The FOAF project was created in the expectation that
these machine-readable descriptions will grow, as the Semantic Web
platform  matures,  to  cover companies, organisations, documents,
groups,  products,  file  sharing  and many other aspects of life,
both  online  and  off.  The  time  has  come  to  evaluate  these
assumptions  in  the  context  of the opportunities and challenges
presented by the rise of FOAF and the Semantic Web.

Social  networking  is  a  recent  topic gaining much interest and
publicity. Social networking sites are community sites where users
can maintain an online network of friends or associates for social
or business purposes: whether looking for a job, reconnecting with
old  friends, moving to a new area, or dating. Most of these sites
are  based  on a centralised architecture: all users' descriptions
are  stored  in  one big database. There is, however, growing user
and  business  interest in portability between such sites, and for
sophisticated "single sign-on" mechanisms that reduce the need for
data  re-entry, while allowing users to manifest different aspects
of  themselves  in  different  contexts.  FOAF-based import/export
allows  such  sites  to address user demand for control of "their"
data;   however,  many  deployment,  privacy,  authentication  and
engineering  issues  have  not  yet  been  fully explored. To what
extent  do  mechanisms  such  as  FOAF change the environment they
attempt  to  describe?  How can the visibility of personal data be
restricted  to  certain  audiences?  How can businesses make money
when their customers can migrate to new services with increased ease?

This  workshop  on  FOAF,  social  networking and the Semantic Web
provides  a  first  chance  to  discuss the unusual combination of
perspectives - academic and scientific, engineering, social, legal
and  business  - drawn together by these trends. The workshop aims
to bring together for the first time researchers interested in the
effects,  analysis  and  application  of  social  networks  on the
(Semantic)  Web as well as practitioners building applications and
infrastructure.  The  workshop will also try to give a snapshot of
current  developments, as well as setting a roadmap for the future
of  both  FOAF  and  social networking - especially in the context
of the Semantic Web.

Topics of interest for full papers include, but are not limited to
the following:

 * Social network metadata standards
 * Trust issues in social networks
 * Profiles of FOAF, subsets, mapping to other vocabularies and formats
 * Federated digital identity, single sign-on (decentralized identity
   management)
 * Business models for the Semantic Web (life after banner
   advertisements)
 * Integration with desktop and mobile applications (chat, IM, P2P,
   Bluetooth, address books, RSS/Atom)
 * Privacy, etiquette and best practice issues for aggregators
 * Infrastructure for social networking
 * Applications of online social networking
 * Knowledge management with social networks
 * Mathematical analysis of social networks
 * Exchange of social network information
 * Applications of online social networks
 * Shared annotations
 * Use of digital signatures and encryption with RDF/XML
 * RDF-based search engines, data harvesting and syndication
 * GUIs (browsers, editors) for FOAF and Semantic Web data
 * Formalisms that address practical problems of heterogenous
   changing data
 * Pragmatics of sharing data schemas across subtly different datasets


Submission and Important Dates
------------------------------

The  workshop  will  be  organized in part around talks presenting
selected   research   results  in  the  relevant  fields.  Another
important  part  of  the  workshop will be open discussions, where
participants   define  the  agenda  themselves,  focusing  on  the
interests  of  the participants with respect to social networking,
FOAF,  and  the  Semantic  Web.  Depending  on  the  nature of the
submissions,   some   time  may  be  allocated  to  discussion  of
the  future  development  and  coverage of the FOAF specification.

We  invite the submission of position statements and demonstration
descriptions   as   well  as  full  papers.  Position  papers  and
demonstration  submissions  should  not  exceed  1000  words, full
papers  should  not contain more than 6000 words. Documents should
be  be  submitted as tarred/zipped archives containing exactly one
index.html     file     and     all    accompanying    files    to
[email]team-foafws-org@w3.org[/email] (or alternate address(danbri+foafws@w3.org>).

Papers to be published and/or presented will be selected by in
peer review process.

 * Full paper submissions due: *18th July 2004*
 * Position papers and demonstration proposals due: *22nd July 2004*
 * Notification for acceptance: *5th August 2004*
 * Web-ready versions due: *16th August 2004*
 * Workshop date: *1st-2nd September 2004*


Chairs
------

 * Dan Brickley <danbri@w3.org>, W3C.
 * Stefan Decker <stefan@deri.ie>, DERI.
 * Libby Miller <libby.miller@bristol.ac.uk>, ILRT.
 * R.V.Guha <guha@guha.com>, IBM.


Programme Committee
-------------------

 * Lada Adamic
 * Tom Baker
 * Orkut Buyukkokten
 * Marc Canter
 * Edd Dumbill
 * Dieter Fensel
 * Morten Frederiksen
 * Nick Gibbins
 * Jen Golbeck
 * R.V.Guha
 * Jan Hauser
 * Jim Hendler
 * Mashide Kanzaki
 * Paul Martino
 * Brian McBride
 * Wolfgang Nejdl
 * Chris Schmidt
 * Guus Schreiber
 * Nova Spivak
 * Barney Pell
 * Jack Park
 * Danny Weitzner


Location
--------

Galway  <[url]http://www.galway.net/galwayguide/[/url]>  was  founded  in the
13th   century  by  the  Anglo-Norman  de  Burgos  as  a  medieval
settlement  on  the  eastern bank of the River Corrib. It became a
walled  and  fortified  city  state  ruled  by  fourteen  powerful
merchant  families,  later  known as the "Tribes of Galway". Today
the  city  is a vibrant, bustling centre of the arts and commerce,
though  it still retains a relaxed and intimate atmosphere. Galway
is  also  one  of  the  most  popular  tourist destinations in the
country. The city, with its medieval streets, waterways, extensive
range  of  shopping facilities, wealth of music sessions and other
cultural  events,  is a place to be treasured. The seaside town of
Salthill,  a  Galway suburb, is a renowned summer resort. Its fine
beaches  open  directly  onto  spectacular  Galway  Bay.  Galway's
numerous  annual  festivals  and  celebrations  -  among  them the
'C&#250;irt'  International  Festival  of  Literature,  the Galway Arts
Festival,  the  Galway  Races and the Oyster Festival - are famous
throughout  Ireland  and  beyond.  Galwegians  can  justly claim a
quality   of   life  that  is  surpassed  nowhere  in  the  world.

Being  a  university  city,  Galway  is  a  lively energetic place
throughout  the  year.  The National University of Ireland, Galway
<[url]http://www.nuigalway.ie/[/url]>, situated close to the heart of Galway,
enjoys  an  intimate  relationship  with  the  city and during the
academic  year,  15% of the population of the city are students. A
compact,  thriving  city,  Galway  caters  to youth like few other
places  can. The University's graduates have played a pivotal role
in  all  areas  of  the development of Galway, including the arts,
industry and commerce.

The Digital Enterprise Research Institute <[url]http://www.deri.ie/[/url]> has a
centre located at NUI Galway and is focused on developing
Semantic Web technology.

See the local organisers <[url]http://sw.deri.ie/~jbreslin/foaf-galway/[/url]> 
Page for further details on accommodation and travel.


Sponsoring Possibilities
------------------------

Are  you  a company or organisation willing to sponsor this event?
Sponsoring  companies  will  be  given  the opportunity to present
their  software  in  The  demo  session  and  display  their  logo
prominently  on the workshop homepage. Please contact John Breslin
(john.breslin@deri.ie)        for       further       information.

daveirl

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