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A social namespace

Sunday, November 08, 2009 by Dave Winer.

A few days ago I added OPML export to listbrowser.org. 

Today I want to extend that support to include information from the social network about each user. In this case, the social network is Twitter. I could see situations where this namespace might be used to present information from status.net or Facebook, when they support lists, as Twitter has. 

I'm going to use the name xSocial. The "x" could stand for one of two things: 1. XML or 2. Experimental, in the spirit of MIME types that are considered experimental or ad hoc, or proposals of future standards, and have an "x" in front of their names. In other words, I'm doing this because someone has to go first, and maybe someone already has, so this is my way of asking for comments (or, more likely, flames). 

Here's a list of elements that may appear in documents that use the namespace. 

xSocial:userId -- a string of characters that identifies a user.  

xSocial:userName -- the user's name. 

xSocial:userDescription -- a string of characters describing the user. 

xSocial:userLocation -- a string, the location of the user. 

xSocial:userUrl -- the address of the user's web page. 

xSocial:userStatuses -- the number of status messages from the user. 

xSocial:userFollows -- the number of people the user follows. 

xSocial:userFollowedBy -- the number of people who follow the user. 

xSocial:userProfileImageUrl -- the address of the user's "avatar" image. 

xSocial:userScreenName -- the name the user goes by in the network. 

Caveats and disclaimers: 

1. Think of Twitter as establishing the precedent here. When in doubt each of these elements is defined by the way Twitter uses them. 

2. Twitter keeps other information with each user, this is just the list of information that I include, now, in the OPML that's generated by listbrowser.org. I may add or remove data in the future, or use a different namespace. If it changes, I will hopefully remember to include a comment under this post. 

3. Here's an example of a file that illustrates. 

4. The usual disclaimers apply, including but not limited to: A. It's even worse than it appears. B. I make shitty software. C. I am not a lawyer. D. My mother loves me.