Spiral Dive

Monday, December 02, 2002

Web of Trust 2.

Here's a quick modification to OPML that will allow a web of trust in blogs. Dave Winer told me about OPML. Why reinvent? It's already almost right for what we want to do.

By providing the rss, opml, trust factor and degree, all else is simple math. With this I can prioritize amongst new blogs according to the weight I give you, the weight you have given other blogs, etc...

rss = Where the RSS feed for the blog is (handy for automatic processing).

opml = Where the OPML for the target blog is. This can be read to do nested trust. Not necessary if you don't want to trust farther.

trust = Weighting factor for this blog/person. Multiply this by what is found in the OPML to trust indirectly. Defaults to 1.

degree = How far down the target blog's OPML to go. 2 means trust who you trust, 1 means just you. Defaults to 1.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<opml version="1.1">
<head>
<title>scriptingNewsLeftLinks.opml</title>
<dateCreated>Sat, 05 Jan 2002 19:26:01 GMT</dateCreated>
<dateModified>Tue, 05 Nov 2002 15:57:49 GMT</dateModified>
<ownerName>Dave Winer</ownerName>
<ownerEmail>dave@userland.com<;/ownerEmail>
<expansionState></expansionState>
<vertScrollState>40</vertScrollState>
<windowTop>61</windowTop>
<windowLeft>207</windowLeft>
<windowBottom>860</windowBottom>
<windowRight>354</windowRight>
</head>
<body>
<outline text=DaveNet type="link" url="http://davenet.userland.com/" rss="http://www.scripting.com/rss.xml" opml="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001015/userland/scriptingNewsLeftLinks.opml" trust="1.0" degree="2"/>
</body>

9:19:47 PM

Web of Trust.

Dave Bryson thinks we can use RDF to create a web of trust between bloggers. I think it's a great idea. Here are my thoughts on the subject:

A web of trust can be used for a number of purposes. Chief amongst these are rating content, and finding good new content.

I control my web of trust file; I put the file on the web server. This file is used for two things. It helps me find the right content, and it lets others know what I find good.

Being able to aggregate together trust files is a good thing. Let's say I don't want to form my own trust file; I can just say use his and use hers. Put them together; that's what I want.

I want to be able to define degrees of separation. If I trust Dave, I might also want to be able to trust those that Dave trusts. But I want to be able to limit how far this goes.

Weighting schemes can allocate karma amongst those I trust. This is used to prioritize the information that is presented to me. Trust is not just a binary decision; we can indicate those we particularly trust! Order of information is important.

RDF is a good format for saying things about other things; we might as well use it. There are lots of libraries that know how to deal with it.

7:12:50 PM

Test Driven Programming Before.
Bob McWhirter thinks I should read it, and I'm about to start. I just read the preface, and my first impression runs something like this.
I really wish I worked on a system that was amenable to this kind of automated testing. Most of the complexities I work with involve large numbers of connected users and integrations with highly varied target systems. The only thing I can think of right now is that with a better division of the system, we might be able to find a way to test parts of it automatically. The system as a whole is still highly difficult to test on an automated basis.
I am hopeful that there are going to be techniques for dividing and conquering. We'll see.
7:02:35 PM