Social Software Alliance – Interesting that a main topic of the early work of this group, apart from ontologies / definitions of “topics” / interoperabilities, is unique identity of (social) individuals and communities – Friend of a Friend (FoaF) has been suggested. Given the significance of identity (URI’s) for knowledge factoids, and the need for context information “about” these resources, it is also interesting that FoaF covers a great deal of information “about” an individual. In fact, the context information about the resource is pretty much one and the same as that about the individual. It’s contextual information, including the “motivation” of the individual communicator, that allows the recipient to assess the validity of the information. In fact FoaF is very much along the lines of who cites who – Why should I believe that – Who said that – What are their credentials ? (FoaF even includes the individual’s Myers-Briggs classification !)
So identifying individuals is more about their credentials than their identity per se. (Reputation Management.)
SSA is organised via a Wiki – the first one to which I’ve signed up – a kind of communal web site where you can add new, and edit each other’s, pages. Often seen as a more interactive alternative to blogging.