On 23 Mar 2010, at 22:56, Henry Litwhiler wrote: > On 3/23/10 5:03 PM, Story Henry wrote: >> On 23 Mar 2010, at 21:33, Henry Litwhiler wrote: >> >> >>> To me, at least, decentralization is a very important thing, and the GNU >>> Social project can serve not only as a way of pulling people out of these >>> über-centralized social networking sites but also as a way of changing the >>> way the internet works at a fundamental level. >>> >> This is even more fundamental if you place your WebId ( >> http://esw.w3.org/WebID ) on that server. Your identity itself becomes >> something that you then control. To put it somewhere else is to make >> yourself under the tutellage of someone else. It should only happen in >> exceptional circumstances. >> >> This is about controlling your identity. >> >> Henry >> >> Social Web Architect >> http://bblfish.net/ >> > Absolutely. One of the major driving forces behind the project is the idea of > putting privacy and personal data control ahead of convenience.
Mind you if you try http://webid.myxwiki.org/ you will see that making a WebId and associating it with an x509 certificate is a one click affair. The fact that it is hosted on another server is of course just a deployment issue... There are sites such as http://ladistribution.net/ which show how installation of social software could be as easy as one click. What they are missing is the single distributed sign on piece (which foaf+ssl provides). So currently that service gives a iphone like - click and install - user interface for installing apps. No reason installing social software could not be that easy. Henry
