Plink is a new Friendster clone with one big difference: it’s completely open. It uses the FOAF specification for describing relationships between people. Because you create and store this data on your own, you are in complete control of it, and it can be used for other tools as well.
For example, my FOAF created my PLINK profile. Unfortunately, it’s having problems recognizing my friends, but that’s probably why they say it’s still in Beta. [Why am I giving it an easier time than Bloglines? Because the Bloglines caching bug made the site unusable, PLINK is still usable to me.] [Update: Dominic was right (see the comments) – my FOAF wasn’t validating. It looks good now, be sure to validate your FOAF!]
The interesting stuff happens when different FOAF tools play together. TypePad uses FOAF to generate its blogroll, so that whenever you update your blogroll your friends on PLINK gets updated. LiveJournal is still working on FOAF and head honcho Brad Fitzpatrick gives it thumbs up. Imagine a spam tool that sees if an email is from someone in your friend network before allowing it.
So how do you get started? The easiest way is to use the FOAF-a-matic to create your file, then throw it up on your webserver. Then add your FOAF to PLINK and you’re in.
2 responses to “Plink and FOAF”
I think the reason PLINK isn’t displaying your profile properly is because your FOAF file isn’t validating….
That was, in fact, the problem. I validated it with the W3C RDF Validator and found the problem. All better now, thanks for the tip.