Fighting for the Future of the Social Web: Selling Out and Opening Up
Download as PPTX, PDF•1 like•13,221 views
Joseph Smarr discusses the evolution of the social web, advocating for user control over data and the importance of open web technologies. He highlights progress made with protocols like OpenID and OAuth, but acknowledges ongoing challenges in user experience and corporate influence. Smarr urges continued effort to maintain an innovative, user-centered social web ecosystem.
Fighting for the Future of the Social Web: Selling Out and Opening Up
- 1. Fighting for the Future of the Social Web Selling Out and Opening Up Joseph Smarr Member of Technical Staff, Google Portland, OR – July 26th, 2011 http://profiles.google.com/jsmarr http://twitter.com/jsmarr http://josephsmarr.com
- 2. A bit about me… Software Engineer at Google since 2010 - Worked a lot on Google+ (esp. circles & sharing) - Also worked on Webfinger, Portable Contacts, Social Graph API, Buzz APIs Former CTO of Plaxo (and first employee, joined 2002) Long-time advocate and early adopter of Open Social Web - Bill of rights (opensocialweb.org) - Plaxo as early mainstream OpenID relying party - OpenID / OAuth hybrid spec - Portable Contacts spec - Former board member, OpenID Foundation - Former board member, OpenSocial Foundation
- 3. The obligatory disclaimer: These are my personal views, not Google’s!
- 4. Is the social web actually opening up? Is open web tech getting more useful & user-friendly? Have open web proponents “sold out” to big companies? Hint: “yes and no…”
- 5. But first…a brief reminder:
- 7. Why we fight: Trying new things should be easier!
- 8. Why we fight: Trying new things should be easier!
- 9. Why we fight: Users should control their own data!
- 10. Why we fight: Innovation leads to awesomeness!
- 11. When will we have won? Users can try new services without having to “start over” or leave their friends & data behind. Users can connect across services that don’t know of each other (or like each other). Developers can thrive in a “social web ecosystem” and quickly find success. The social web is vibrant, innovative, and not owned by anyone (i.e. just like the web itself).
- 12. So…how are we doing so far?
- 14. OpenID: As mainstream as Lady Gaga?
- 15. A nice “give and take,” even with the big guys.
- 16. Random collection of “socia arly all support OpenID and/or OA (or are out of business) OAuth-based APIs are now the norm.
- 17. OpenIDSampleStore.com Best practices and sample
- 18. Sounds great! So…where’s the problem?
- 19. So near and yet so far…
- 20. So near and yet so far…
- 21. So near and yet so far…
- 22. How do I sign in with my Yahoo! account here?
- 23. Sign-up forms stubbornly refuse to die.
- 24. Hmm, which account did I use last time?
- 25. Fresh companies bring fresh ideas.
- 26. code.google.com/apis/identitytoolkit Google is making account UI
- 27. The future: Re-building OpenID on top of OAuth 2.
- 28. PortableContacts.net Why are contact APIs like snowflakes?
- 29. We fixed password-scraping, but not much else.
- 30. Open protocols only work if businesses let them!
- 31. What happened to “bridging
- 35. The technology is ahead of the market.
- 36. Have we “sold out”?
- 37. Fixing “If the big guys don’t
- 38. Facebook became a champion of OAuth.
- 39. Will Google+ be more than
- 42. Reminder: The social web is
- 43. Is the social web actually opening up? Is open web tech getting more useful & user-friendly? Have open web proponents “sold out” to big companies?
- 44. Is the social web actually opening up? Answer: Is open web tech getting more useful & user-friendly? We’re making solid progress. But we all need to keep pushing. Have open web proponents “sold out” to big companies? The future is still ours to build.
- 45. If you want an open future, do something about it.
Editor's Notes
- #15: Lots of sites allow OpenID login – even LadyGaga.com!
- #16: Even big sites like Google and Yahoo are now relying parties – something many said would never happen
- #17: I picked this random set of logos from the web, and they almost all support OpenID or OAuth.
- #18: And there are open-source samples and best practices available, such as this site made by Googlers.
- #23: Mobile UI is still lacking – how do I use my Yahoo account here?!
- #25: Lots of sites allow OpenID login – even LadyGaga.com!
- #29: Case study: Portable Contacts. Many adopted it, influenced vCard 4 and W3C Contacts API, but still most APIs are incompatible, and worse, their Terms of Service prevent working with “any supporting provider”.
- #31: It’s not enough to invent open protocols. We have to keep businesses from wrapping them in closed Terms of Service. Imagine if HTTP or SMTP worked like that!
- #37: Looks like all open social web advocates “sold out” to bigger companies in the past few years…
- #38: But maybe it’s not all bad, when you see things like Yahoo’s flickr starting to take OpenID logins from Google.
- #39: And Facebook announced OAuth support at their next f8 after David joined.
- #41: Circles are “federation-friendly”: everyone maintains their own list (no bi-directional confirmation needed), you can find and connect to friends from other services (e.g. yahoo) and even add non-Google users to circles (via email). As protocols evolve, should be able to connect/share/comment across sites.
- #42: Circles are “federation-friendly”: everyone maintains their own list (no bi-directional confirmation needed), you can find and connect to friends from other services (e.g. yahoo) and even add non-Google users to circles (via email). As protocols evolve, should be able to connect/share/comment across sites.
- #46: Users should demand more control over their data, and developers should gravitate to platforms that more open.