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"As a site that covers more social network launches than any other, we know the pain of hundreds of separate social networking silos.  Each time you sign up, you're faced with starting again from scratch.  And while Facebook has made moves towards openness, it remains a data silo like any other, claiming ownership of your \"social grid\" (friend network) and other data despite having no real claim to it.\nThe launch today of Plaxo Pulse is another step towards openness, but the company fully admits it's nowhere near where it needs to be in the future: it's a first step, and likely an attempt to earn bragging points for Plaxo as they say \"we were here first!\".  But we all know, as evidenced by the Netvibes-Facebook collision last week, that we're still dealing with a bunch of companies that want to own your attention and keep you within their walls. That won't do.\nAs weary social network testers, Mashable would like a way to make your relationships portable.  Yes, we have stuff like OpenID for identity, but that's no use if you want to emigrate from sites like Facebook with your social grid intact.  This format may also need to understand the strength and nature of relationships, and perhaps allow grouping.  \nI was turned back on to this issue by a great Wired article today that highlights the limitations of existing formats, like XHTML Friends Network (perhaps that could be extended?), and also calls for some kind of cohesiveness.  It's a problem I've thought a lot about as we review the new breed of aggregated social networks, and look at how short they fall of the ideal.  Clearly, there's now a path forward provided by Facebook and others, but all this will be wasted energy unless there's an agreed standard.  \nMaybe, like many microformats, such a standard would be delayed by squabbles between the various groups.  And maybe lack of adoption from the major networks would shoot it down.  But if there is to be true portability between social networks, we'd be more than willing to lead the charge."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2007/08/06/mashable-supports-the-open-friends-format-off/>