Absolutely agree. A URI is the only way. I think the most compelling reason, other that being a well-known standard already, is that a URI makes discovery possible. So, for instance, I could be "http://joecascio.net";. Just like my blog home page declares my OpenID server and delegate, so it could declare my microblogging server and ID. This also helps to attack the problem of ID proliferation. The individual sub-IDs I may be known by for email, IM, microblogging or whatever now can be subsumed by one master ID, or as many as I want to have to serve my various on-line activities, sort of like carrying multiple credit cards.
JoeC On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 12:53 PM, Derek Gathright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > How exactly we namespace micro-blogging usernames was a topic Evan > discussed at Bearhug Camp and unfortunately I wasn't able to be in > attendance to throw in my 2 cents. But to me this is an extremely important > issue that deserves discussion, so I'm bringing the debate here. > > Here's the problem (as I see it): If > microblogging/micromessaging/tweeting/whateveryouwanttocallit is going to > truly be cross-platform, there needs to be a way to direct messages not only > to users within your own platform (i.e. Twitter, Identi.ca, etc...) as well > as direct messages to users on other platforms (like how email works). > Also, when your message/tweet is sent to another platform and it has an > @reply in it, how is that @reply portrayed on that other platform? > > Example: Currently there are Identi.ca users that make use of a bridge to > relay their messages from Identi.ca to Twitter, and when those messages > contain an @reply, those also get carried over to Twitter. That's fine & > dandy until someone sends an @reply to identi.ca/bob who is different from > twitter.com/bob, and twitter.com/bob starts getting all these tweets in > his reply timeline that are not really supposed to be directed at him. The > purist in me says that is a big issue that needs to be resolved before more > people start doing the same thing (*cough* http://laconi.ca/trac/ticket/68) > because it can have a detrimental effect on the experience for users on > other systems. > > Unfortunately I don't remember all the options Evan had written on the > whiteboard at Bearhug Camp, but here are some that I had thought of a few > weeks back when this issue arose > > @identi.ca/derek > @derek/identi.ca > @derek::identi.ca > @[EMAIL PROTECTED] > @http://identi.ca/derek > etc... > > You can see patterns develop, and really it just comes down to what symbols > you want to use. So what are the similarities/differences between them? > Well, all of them are made-up URI's aside from the ones that actually point > to the user's true URI, @http://identi.ca/derek & @identi.ca/derek. > > As a client developer that has played with mixing twitter & > identi.catimelines (unlike Twhirl for example which separates them into > different > windows) I've really thought about this issue, and the only one that > really makes sense to me is the true URI. If micro-blogging proliferates > as much as we hope, multi-platform clients are going to be fed many @reply > messages directed at users that aren't hosted on their platform. If I get a > message that contains @derek/twitarmy in my client, I would have have zero > idea where to actually point for that user's URI or what platform "twitarmy" > even is unless I rely on a list of all the micro-blogging platforms out > there (bad idea). However, if my client gets a message that contains @ > army.twit.tv/derek and I have never heard of "army.twit.tv", it's no big > deal because I have a great idea of where to point my user to in order to > find more information about "derek". Platforms and/or clients can also of > course hide the service domain if it doesn't make sense to display that info > (i.e. if the recipient is on the same domain as the sender). > > Just think about how different the internet would be if email addresses > weren't "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" but instead would be "gmail.com/drgath". That > would in fact be your true URI where people could send messages to via > email, could visit via HTTP to see who that person is, could chat with that > person via XMPP by adding that user to their buddy list, could be used as an > OpenID, etc... Social networking would have evolved much differently and > there may not be the need for developer unfriendly silos like MySpace and > Facebook. Social networking could be... *gasp*... distributed! We can > finally use a "Universal Resource Identifier" to actually be a universal way > to identify and access a person. > > Now, adding all of the additional modules to handle that functionality may > or may not ever happen, but the potential is at least there. > > Back to Bearhug Camp... I didn't catch all of the conversation surrounding > this namespacing/routing issue and where the conversation left off. But I > did see Evan erase the "@http://identi.ca/username"; option and said he was > comfortable with the other approaches. It was one of those slow-motion > "nooooooo!" moments and I wanted to raise the issue to see what other > developers thought. Am I crazy? > > _______________________________________________ > Laconica-dev mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.laconi.ca/mailman/listinfo/laconica-dev > >
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