I’ve been working on and off over the past couple months (hmm, since SXSW – wow, I’ve been slow on this) on what I’m labeling ‘distributed social software‘, sort of redundant one might think, except that ironically, besides the original social-software catylyst (blogs) no current generation social networking systems are distributed, and even with blogs, not formally so (not necessarily a bad thing, perhaps, but that’s another argument).
Anyway, sort of surprising that a Google search turns up exactly zero matches, but I was talking to a friend who had simultaneously invented the same term for a CS paper he’s writing, so at least we’re making up terms on the same wavelength. 🙂
Issues I’m currently tackling:
- Defining complex (typed, n-way) trust relationships
- Dealing w/ trust segmentation; trust transitivity across fragmented identity
- pseudonymity and/or double-blind transactions
- not re-inventing any wheels I don’t need to
- maximum simplicity, extensibility, compatibility
- surviving last week of classes (this may be the toughest thing)