OK now I’d like to list out a bunch of common constructs and underlying system features - which when implemented could bring the capabilities of the open mesh into any platform, application or service.

Since most of these constructs will eventually become standard underlying system features in various open mesh platforms why not list them all here - so everyone can share in the ideas?

First set of constructs are in the area of ID - #1 - ID, Personas, Groups and one’s Social Graphs

- ID profile (a Person)

- Persona (alternative ID’s - all controlled from the same account)

- Group (collection of people - wrapped inside of series of activities, functions and features)

- Social Graph (My Friends and various relationships) - (see also Contacts below)

- Destinations (places where I can publish and store the various kinds of self expression I create (blogs, social networks, IPTV channels, social media apps, storage services)

- My behaviors, tastes, interests (in APML? Attention.xml?)

- My Tags (just the names of the tags themselves)

- My Links (bookmarks)

- My Reviews (compatible with as many Review services as possible - standard schemas?)

- My Events (compatible with as many Event standards and services as possible)

- Entity (an org or collection of people as an equal member of a social network)

- ShoutOut (tagline) - a short text segment - associated with a profile

These constructs will be useful when facilitating dataportability and movement of ID related data between systems. If every platform understood each of these constructs - then we’d be that much closer to the open mesh.

Second set of constructs are in the area of - #2 - Persistent Ubiquitous Content

- Presentation/Show (a presentation of text, audio, video, images - in sequential order)

- Image (with a collection called album)

- Video (with a collection called playlist )

- Song (with a collection called playlist )

- Article (a longer length text block with title - with no inherent chronological order)

- Blog Post (a text block WITH chronological order)

- Interview (a text document with question/answer format)

- Showcase (a way to highlight or emphasize some person, group or topic)

These standard constructs bring media and storage into the open mesh. Having lots of great content around (both free and paid-for) is a key ingredient to the open mesh. Services of the future will include references and excerpts from great content - as part of the application or service.

Third set of constructs are in the area of - #3 - Structured Content

- Feed (RSS, Atom, FriendFeed, Activity streams, etc.)

- Meta-data (lots and lots of schemas!)

- Shared servers (XML, rdf, doesn’t matter - two-way APIs - for sure!)

- microformats (HTML page tags which identify certain kinds of structured content)

- ThreadsML (an idealistic format for persistent re-entrant conversations)

So if ubiquitous content is important, structured content is even MORE important. Once we can differentiate a Hotel Review from a Restaurant Review - but also find their similarities and make all this data available on shared public servers, we’ll have content as infrastructure for the open mesh.

Fourth set of constructs are in the area of - #4 - Live Web

- message (a short blip of communication, can also be used to refer to private emails inside of social networks)

- call/talk (on the phone, VoIP, etc. - it requires a particular # or addressable URL)

- voice mail (can also be videomail - leave a message - please)

- contact list (slightly different than a social graph - the list of names which you want around)

- microblogging (lots of tiny snippets of text - created in real-time)

- video conference (video-to-video communication)

-IM/chat (typing conversations)

Having the Live Web integrated into all our apps, services and interfaces will help spur the open mesh.

Fifth set of constructs and important elements are in the area of - #5 - Tools

- Outliner (hierarchical text and media editor) (can also be used as a structure editor)

- two-way APIs (symmetrical approach to pulling data out of a system as easily as putting it back in)

- tiered pricing (give it away for free - to start - with limited access or feature set - charge more unlimited access - and then charge a little more for advanced features. Finally - an advanced admin/sysop/community manager version should also be made available - for even more money)

- two-way APIs + community + content = tools (integrated approach to tools - include features that rely upon community and builds content into a tool)

Sixth set of constructs and terms are in the area of - #6 - UI Objects

- see all the terms and concepts outlined in #6

Seventh set of constructs and concepts are in the area of - #7 - Infrastructure

Great open mesh services HAVE to

- have multiple vendors and competition.

- share their membership databases - ala DNS

- rely upon other services

- have to be provide redundancy

Infrastructure can’t be provided by JUST the BigCos

Infrastructure has to be broken up into as many tiny pieces as possible.

Infrastructure has to take the form of feeds, shared servers and simple ID protocols and formats.

Infrastructure is tagging.

And in closing - Infrastructure will be made up of the following kinds of ‘underlying constructs’ which we can all rely upon to build the open mesh:

RSS - Activity streams - Friendfeeds - subscribe to anyone, and publish that info yourself (Happy RSS Awareness day BTW)

- Real-time talk, VoIP, IM, casting, twitting, presence channels - the real-time blood of the open mesh

- Dataportability - the ability to move your stuff, wherever, whenever with access privileges under your control

- Interoperability - open two-ways APIs which facilitate two disparate systems sharing commands, verbs, actions between each other

- Media - Structured media, stored media, media feeds, ubiquitous media, indexed and tagged

- Routing - easy way to put my stuff where I want it

- Addressability - standard way to identify and/address a specific person

- Opt In controls - control who get to see my stuff

- Who I am - where I am - what I’m doing - targeted ads - my current status - Whoever controls this - controls the purse strings.

So that’s it - now only two left - #9 - the People’s Marketplace and the most difficult one to write - #10 - Standards

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 8:57 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.