Posts tagged “social networks”

I sketch out what a truly distributed social network protocol might look like: federated identity like email, distributed search, spam handled via key exchange rather than AI filtering, and pub/sub activity streams. Facebook's "Open Graph" isn't any of those things. Here's what it would actually take.

Social processors combine social networks with crowd processors to deliver recommendations based solely on your actual social circle. Since you're like your friends (that's why they're your friends), this eliminates false positives. The key: build on existing social graphs rather than creating new ones, and crack interoperability to win big.

I've been thinking hard about where social networks are headed. No single network will "win" -- people have multiple social circles, so they'll always maintain multiple networks. The real unsolved problems are partitioning: selective data portability, unified messaging, identity verification, and filtering connections by actual relevance. Interoperability is the next big thing.