[rdfweb-dev] Re: online accounts vs IM accounts? was Re: indicating meta and type?

[Ben Hammersley]

On Sunday, Dec 8, 2002, at 22:20 Europe/Stockholm, Bill Kearney wrote:

>> From: Dan Brickley <danbri at w...>
>>
>> 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).
>
> I'd go along with there being a similar need. This is sort of why I'd
> envisioned using an attribute for the service URI. That way anything 
> wanting to
> have a foaf 'service identity' would need do nothing more than make up 
> the URI.
> It would then become dependent on the client programs consuming the 
> foaf to make
> the association.
>
> <foaf:meta type="http://messenger.hotmail.com" 
> rdf:value="joeuser at m..."/>
> <foaf:meta type="http://slashdot.org" rdf:value="joeuser666" >
> <foaf:meta type="http://oscar.aol.com" rdf:value="joeuser39423" />

+1

> etc, with the expectation that anything looking to see if a user has 
> an MSN
> messenger account would have to look for it's type URI. This is 
> undoubtedly
> duplicating the same sort of thing a MIME type pretends to accomplish. 
> Unless
> something knows what to look for these meta elements could be ignored.
>
>> 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.,
>
> I would *really* like to avoid this. There are WAY too many different 
> online
> services to make this feasible. AIM, Yahoo, Jabber (on any number of 
> servers),
> IRC, ICQ, MSN, SMS (on any number of telco systems), Alpha pagers, 
> Blackberry
> devices, etc, ad infinitum.

I agree with Bill. For one thing, automating retrieval from the OSX 
keychain for this would be much easier. It would also be great for 
migrating to new devices. "Hey 3G-Phone-Thing! Here's my FOAF! Sort 
yourself out, lad."