Online Identities and Social Mapping: Thoughts and Presentations

Jonathan Vanasco <jonathan@findmeon.com> || http://findmeon.com/users/jvanasco


Intro

Hi! My name is Jonathan Vanasco. I'm the Founder/CEO FindMeOn, Inc (aka FindMeOn.com) - an Online Identity company based in New York City.

With the significant amount of attention now shifting to the realm of online identities - and increasing buzzworthyness of words like 'aggregation', 'social graphs' and 'platform' - I've decided to start this repository of essays and presentations I've given on the subject over the past few years.

Not many people know who FindMeOn is: we're a small firm primarily focused on Research & Development and the Institutional Application of Identity Data. We developed some neat technology in 2005 and launched the first consumer product in our sector in 2006 - but were about 3 years ahead of the market. We pioneered much of the current thought in online identity management systems, open platforms, and open networks/apis. Some really smart people have independently come up with systems like ours, some really mean people have cloned us. We've been porting "social graphs" for our users long before people came up with that term or even wanted to port it -- and had working systems + patents filed before any of our 'competitors'.

Our core technologies revolve around a concept my colleagues have termed "Social Mapping"- an area which essentially covers the intersections of what people commonly refer to as 'The Social Graph', 'People Search', and 'Identity Aggregation'. We found these areas to be more tightly integrated with one another than most people believe, and feel that this term makes the most sense to people we converse with.

In August 2006 FindMeOn launched as the first platform designed to syndicate online identities, profile information and content stream notifications -- essentially a giant switchboard that connected user accounts across the internet. In October 2006 we unveiled a relationship indexer which tracks online inter-personal relations, allowing users to see their true n-degrees of separation across networks. The indexer is powered in part by an importing service which standardizes a user's online contacts across different networks. On October 11th 2006 FindMeOn.org unveiled OpenSN - the Open Social Network standard for profile serialization and exchange. We believe our most impressive accomplishment hasn't been that our products have consistently been the first of their kind -- but that they've been the only items on the market to offer per-network & per-attribute privacy controls.

FindMeOn hasn't been active on the consumer side since Feb 2007. While our efforts on the consumer side has been limited by PR and increasing competition, we have been focusing on our institutional products and Intellectual Property portfolio -- both of which are stronger than ever. Identity Research is a way of giving the general public a 'behind the scenes' look at some of the innovations we've made over the past few years.

Core Beliefs

User Privacy and Transparency are core beliefs of FindMeOn and myself. Many startups are founded on a cool idea, which is then monetized and eventually causes privacy concerns. With FindMeOn we've had the luxury of knowing not just the kind of data we can generate, but the value/application of that data, and potential causes for alarm. As you read through this microsite, please keep our core beliefs in mind.

I. Social network data has immense value

Social Networks have immense utility for Users and Advertising Interests alike.

Users enjoy networking online, and find tools, aggregators, statistics useful to their everyday lives. It's a fast, fun and efficient way to keep in touch with friends and family, find new music, and explore interests. As new users embrace the internet, and existing users branch out over different networks, this data grows astronomically.

Advertisers and Consumer Marketers have been struggling to harness and interpret this information, but they're finally getting it. I keep hearing people claim Google created OpenSocial to combat Facebook - that's just silly. Google created OpenSocial to better monetize social networks for ads; no one at Google or the partner networks really care about the APIs or widgets themselves - what they do care about is how the underlying framework will turn the information it generates into advertising efficiency.

II. User privacy is a mandate, not an afterthought

Nothing is a true solution unless it addresses user privacy. Raw / Personally Identifiable user data should never be sold/rented/exposed or otherwise transferred from one system to another without the user's explicit and cognizant approval - a hidden clause in a clickwrap agreement is not sufficient.

People constantly tell me "I've been waiting for a single service that will let me manage all of my contacts, see all of their websites, and...." - and I am increasingly amazed at how shortsighted that train of thought is. It would be a great service - I even prototyped one in 2005, its not terribly hard. The correct solution to this problem, one that has cost us nearly 2 years on UI issues, is to take into account the realms of privacy that one must respect when integrating different online identities and lenses. Just because some wants to see every site I have online doesn't mean that I want them to be able to.

Links

Essays

Interviews & Articles

Press Releases

White Papers

Presentations