online accounts vs IM accounts? was Re: indicating meta and type?

[Dan Brickley]

[snip]

Here's a question, that's pretty independent of RDF syntax details:

If we're making up a way of representing user accounts for online chat 
services (AIM, MSN, iChat etc. Instant Messaging), is that problem any 
more specific than the general one of representing a user account with 
online services in general (eg. Slashdot, eBay, Amazon, etc. logins).

FWIW I keep my online banking details hidden away in a pgp-encrypted FOAF 
file, and the (made up on the spot) markup I use to represent that doesn't 
seem too different from that I'd use for AIM etc account details. Basically 
there is a need to identify the service, and someone's controlled userID 
within that service, and (for the daring) perhaps one's password or hashed 
password.

My suggestion would be to take two parallel strands:
(i) create nice simple shortcut properties for all the main IM services,
foaf:aimChat_nick, foaf:msnChat_nick etc., as well (ii) as a more general if 
verbose representation of a generic user account. The former is a 
convenient user-friendly shortcut; the later is for backend/script use, 
and for purists. Both have a role.

This tradeoff between verbose/expressive and short/sweet/cludgy is 
of course a classic design headache, and one that we'll run into with 
FOAF and RDF/SW apps time and time again. Here's another variant:

http://rdfweb.org/people/danbri/2001/11/rdfauthor-foaf/foaf-school.png
(sorry, demo by bitmap picture...)

...here we see the tradeoff between saying 'person X went to a school, S
that has a homepage SP' and 'person X has a schoolHomepage of SP'. The 
two forms have strengths and weaknesses. As with IM, I think we need to allow 
for both forms, and there will be a need both for tools that map the one 
into the other, as well as user documentation that explains which is the 
preferred form in some context (eg. "use foaf:schoolHomepage in your foaf.rdf;
use the longer form if you're describing the details of each school...").

hope this helps. 

Dan