The open alternative to LinkedIn
Following Phil's lead, I've added XFN support to my Links to other people's blogs at right. Phil is right on the money in describing the difference between XFN vs. similar things like FOAF: if someone as lazy as me can make it work, then it's got a chance at big-time success on the web.
It's too bad they called it XFN, though. Unlike Phil, I didn't mark any of my contacts as "friend" or even "coworker". It's not that I don't like them, but my friendships are not information I particularly care to advertise on the Internet. I never had any use for Friendster and the like, and I have no use for it in this context either. I have been a big fan of LinkedIn, though - all my Links at right are labeled with rel="colleague met" which is precisely the relationship that I express by linking someone on LinkedIn. (As for "coworker", I'm simply too lazy to keep track of who happens to be a coworker vs. colleague at this moment in time.)
While blogs may be the way this linking gets initiated, it doesn't seem like the logical place for XFN to evolve. It would be way cooler to have a site that would allow me to post my professional profile there but open it up to XFN linking (and make it point-and-click simple to create XFN links). And in true Internet style, it doesn't have to be just one site: many sites could support this with different "flavors" - the mass-market Yahoo! Profiles vs. a more professional-oriented site, etc.. One would simply store one's profile at the site that most closely reflects your life on the Internet (more professional vs. more personal) and they could all link together.
It's too bad they called it XFN, though. Unlike Phil, I didn't mark any of my contacts as "friend" or even "coworker". It's not that I don't like them, but my friendships are not information I particularly care to advertise on the Internet. I never had any use for Friendster and the like, and I have no use for it in this context either. I have been a big fan of LinkedIn, though - all my Links at right are labeled with rel="colleague met" which is precisely the relationship that I express by linking someone on LinkedIn. (As for "coworker", I'm simply too lazy to keep track of who happens to be a coworker vs. colleague at this moment in time.)
While blogs may be the way this linking gets initiated, it doesn't seem like the logical place for XFN to evolve. It would be way cooler to have a site that would allow me to post my professional profile there but open it up to XFN linking (and make it point-and-click simple to create XFN links). And in true Internet style, it doesn't have to be just one site: many sites could support this with different "flavors" - the mass-market Yahoo! Profiles vs. a more professional-oriented site, etc.. One would simply store one's profile at the site that most closely reflects your life on the Internet (more professional vs. more personal) and they could all link together.