FOAF

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FOAF ( F RiEnd o f a F RiEnd) is an ontology for machine-readable model of social networks . The heart of the project is an RDF schema that defines classes and properties that can be used in an XML -based RDF document. FOAF is one of the first applications of semantic web technologies.

background

A FOAF document can publish information about a person (including name, age, gender, email address, home and professional website address , weblog address, ICQ / XMPP / AIM IDs, occupation, etc.) and people known to the person are called. As soon as several people publish FOAF documents, e.g. B. in the WWW , the FOAF documents can refer to each other. A software can evaluate these FOAF documents, analyze the social relationships and z. B. visualize .

Another conceivable task would be to store personal data, as mentioned above, messenger contacts, mail accounts or the like, centrally at one point (FOAF file on your own server in the WWW) and for processes such as logging into forums or various services specify the FOAF file without entering all the data individually and, if necessary, also changing them in the event of changes. Corresponding add-ons or plug-ins are already available within some services.

Example of an RDF document with FOAF information

 <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
          xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
          xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
          xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#">

   <!-- Informationen zu einer Person: -->
   <foaf:Person xml:lang="en">

     <!-- Name: -->
     <foaf:name>Jimmy Wales</foaf:name>

     <!-- E-Mail-Adresse :-->
     <foaf:mbox rdf:resource="mailto:jwales@bomis.com"/>

     <!-- private Webseite: -->
     <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://www.jimmywales.com/"/>

     <!-- Nickname: -->
     <foaf:nick>Jimbo</foaf:nick>

     <!-- Foto: -->
     <foaf:depiction
       rdf:resource="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Jimbo_Wales_in_France_cropped.jpg" />

     <!-- Die Person ist interessiert an folgenden Themen: -->
     <foaf:interest>

       <!-- Wikipedia-Website: -->
       <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://www.wikimedia.org/">
         <dc:title>Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia</dc:title>
       </rdf:Description>

     </foaf:interest>

     <!-- Die Person kennt folgende andere Personen: -->
     <foaf:knows>

       <!-- Informationen zu einer anderen Person: -->
       <foaf:Person>
         <foaf:name>Angela Beesley</foaf:name>
       </foaf:Person>

     </foaf:knows>
   </foaf:Person>

 </rdf:RDF>

Open social networks

Various providers now publish information about their members as a FoaF file. This is intended to counteract a “silo-ization” of information in closed, proprietary networks. An incomplete list of providers that publish information in FoaF format:

criticism

From a data protection point of view, every process that makes data machine-readable and then available worldwide poses an increased risk. Standardization such as FOAF makes data collection automated by robots a further boost. However, this is to be counteracted with the FOAF + SSL technology.

See also

Web links