[rdfweb-dev] FOAF URI Scheme

[Ben Nolan]

Hi,

Some of you may know me - I've been working at zopto.com - creating
distributed social networking software via foaf. 

( Zopto is a FOAF builder+browser with a nice and friendly interface )

Anyway - as I've been developing away - I've come up with the idea of a
foaf uri - that allows webservices to communicate foaf notification
events between one-another. Basically:

Jimmy finds Joes profiles.
Jimmy adds Joe to his own FOAF profile.
Joe gets a message posted to his "personal activity" weblog:

<entry xmlns="http://purl.org/atom/ns#">
	<title>Jimmy added you!</title> 
	<link rel="alternate" type="application/html"
href="foaf://da75ef7d77a785a75da75a75ddd75751241/added/" />
	<content type="text/text">
		Jimmy added you to his foaf profile. Follow the
contained link to view
		Joe's profile.
	</content>  
</entry>

(This message is expressed using the atom-api). As you can see - this
creates a human-readable entry, that can is also be parsed by machine to
have an automated effect. The scheme works as follows:

foaf://sha1/[action]

Where "foaf:" is the uri identifier.
"Sha1" is a sha1 of the senders mbox.
"Action" is an optional parameter to indicate a foaf event

Foaf events I have invented so far:

* added - the user added you to their foaf profile - (eg. as above)

* message - the user sent you this message - eg:

<entry xmlns="http://purl.org/atom/ns#">
	<title>My dog is sick</title> 
	<link rel="alternate" type="application/html"
href="foaf://da75ef7d77a785a75da75a75ddd75751241/message/" />
	<content type="text/text">
		Hi man - my dog is sick - I'm going to be late.
	</content>  
</entry>

* removed - the user removed you from their foaf profile

It's a very basic scheme - but works well and I hope it can be of use to
the foaf community.

Regards,
Ben Nolan

Director, Ripcord Technology

www.ripcord.co.nz
Phone: +6421 770 662
Email: ben at ripcord.co.nz