Identity and the Future of Social Networking

What is wrong with social networks? There is a problem about having to move back and forth with identities and social networking.

The room is full, with people sitting on the floor. Glad I got a seat and an outlet at the beginning of the session. Do we need a protocol to fix all the variety of networks? He then asked 3 questions:

Have you heard of OpenID?

Have you heard of CardSpace?

Have you heard of Data Portability.org?

Many of the larger companies are going to begin providing OpenID’s. However, most of the companies are not accepting OpenIDs, thought that is starting to change.

How can I move my social networking information back and forth with me? This reminds me of the Robert Scoble issue when he was booted off of Facebook.

Thus, what can we do to fix this?

Is this really a problem to fix? Do people really care about moving around information vs. just starting anew?

Perhaps only simple solutions should be focused upon, such as changing the avatar and propagation of this.

Does this relate to data accessibility? Blinked Data is an example.

How can these things be linked together, especially with permissioning of information based on roles and multiple personas. OpenID is really about extracting identification and authentication.

Lots of issues about how these different systems are problematic, but solutions seem to be in short supply. There are some ideas here and there about possible ways to address these problems, though I have never heard of any of the sites or organizations that are being mentioned.

Looking around the room, I see 13 laptops in the room. A number of those are not open, though  a few are on and around Facebook. Interesting, I do not see many people liveblogging the session. I wonder why that is the case? Perhaps people would rather interact and speak and discuss rather than process and record? I wonder that a number of people do not even seem to have laptops with them, which is not something I would have expected when I came.

Passport is the authentication system for all the Microsoft systems and applications. 

The idea of variety of OpenID providers is good, but who will authenticate who these people are and why we should trust them.

Hurray – lunch break until 3:00! Hurray, as I did not realize how hungry I am.

Good discussion, but I do not have any solutions to any of these problems. More interest in them, and perhaps that is where the value is . . .