Experiments in Data Portability 30 November 2008

On Tuesday, I gave a skillswap talk about some of the experimental work I have been engaged in. For the last few months I have had a growing interest in the current data portability design patterns used in social media sites. As we start to see the maturing of the earlier technologies such as OpenID and growth of some exciting new ones like OAuth and XRDS-Simple, focus is moving to the user experience. Through this presentation I try to look at current patterns of data portability that could be implemented now and look at some of the lessons that could be leant from the early adopters.
More | Comments 3

Microformats to Portable Contacts API converters 15 October 2008

I have been doing some research work into the new Portable Contacts API. It’s designed to enable users to securely port their friend lists or address books from one site to another.

Currently most social networking and address book sharing sites have their own proprietary contacts API’s. These API’s often provide some sort of distributed authorisation model for a developer to code against. If you integrate a few of these different interfaces into your site the levels of complexity become nightmarish
More | Comments 0

OAuth.net 08 September 2008

OAuth is one of those technologies that when first understood makes your mind race with the possibilities. Authentication is a dry subject at the best of times, but OAuth shines not because the technology is cool, but because it has the capability to fundamentally change the way people use the web.

Today Madgex open-sourced OAuth.net, which as it sounds is an OAuth library for .net. This is a spin off from an internal research project we are working on.
More | Comments 0

Microformats test-suite concept 03 May 2008

I have been working on a concept for a new microformats test-suite. I need a comprehensive test-suite before I can move the development of UfXtract forward. Rather than just build something in isolation I thought it would be nice to find a way to share this work with the community.
More | Comments 2

Semantic Camp London 19 February 2008

I spent this weekend at Semantic Camp learning all about RDF and speaking about parsing microformats. Although the focus of the event was very small, it attracted a nice group of people who were all passionate about open data portability in one way or another.
More | Comments 1

Cake Friday vs HM Revenue & Customs  09 February 2008

A couple of weeks ago Madgex had a visit from HM Revenue & Customs to review our PAYE tax payments. While in the office they informed us that providing cake on a Friday maybe a taxable benefit. We received this judgement by letter.
More | Comments 8