vCard Format Extension : To Represent the Social Network Information of an Individual
draft-george-vcarddav-vcard-extension-01

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Abstract

This document defines an extension to the vCard data format for representing and exchanging a variety of social network information.

Note

A revised version of this draft document will be submitted to the RFC editor as a Proposed Standard for the Internet Community. Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested, and should be sent to vcarddav@ietf.org.

Table of Contents

1.  Introduction
2.  Terminology Used in This Document
3.  Social Network Properties
    3.1.  Property: OpenID
    3.2.  Property: accountServiceHomepage
    3.3.  Property: socialProfile
    3.4.  Property: photoAlbum
    3.5.  Property: depiction
    3.6.  Property: socialCode
    3.7.  Property: interest
    3.8.  Property: topicInterest
    3.9.  Property: XX
4.  Security Considerations
5.  IANA Considerations
6.  References
    6.1.  Normative References
    6.2.  Informative References
§  Authors' Addresses

1.  Introduction

As social networking has become common, it has become clear that users would like to include information in their vCards [I‑D.ietf‑vcarddav‑vcardrev] (Perreault, S. and P. Resnick, “vCard Format Specification,” November 2008.) about their social networks. Well organized social network information allows the vCard owner to share his profile information and to import or subscribe to profile information of others on joining a new network.

Data portability is an important design point in the development of this format.

2.  Terminology Used in This Document

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119] (Bradner, S., “Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels,” March 1997.).

Syntax specifications shown here use the augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF) as described in [RFC5234] (Crocker, D. and P. Overell, “Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF,” January 2008.), and are specified as in the base vcard specification [I‑D.ietf‑vcarddav‑vcardrev] (Perreault, S. and P. Resnick, “vCard Format Specification,” November 2008.).

3.  Social Network Properties

These properties are related to sharing social-network information.

3.1.  Property: OpenID

Purpose:

OpenID is an open, decentralized user identification standard, allowing users to log onto many services with the same digital identity. Inclusion of an OpenID URI in a vCard lets others add the vCard owner's ID to their authorization lists.

Value type:

A single URI value.

Cardinality:

(0,n)

ABNF:

OPENID-param =

"VALUE=uri" / pid-param / pref-param / any-param

OPENID-value =

uri

Example:

  OpenID:http://www.alice.openid.example.org

3.2.  Property: accountServiceHomepage

Purpose:

Designates the home page of the service provider for this online account.

Value type:

A single URI value.

Cardinality:

(0,n)

ABNF:

ACCOUNTSERVICEHOMEPAGE-param =

"VALUE=uri" / pid-param / pref-param / any-param

ACCOUNTSERVICEHOMEPAGE-value =

uri

Example:

  accountServiceHomepage:http://www.home.socialnetwork.example.org

3.3.  Property: socialProfile

Purpose:

Designates the vCard owner's profile page on a particular social network.

Value type:

A single URI value.

Cardinality:

(0,n)

Special note:

This property SHOULD include the parameter "TYPE" to specify the name of the social network that it refers to. Usually, that will also be discernible from the URI, which is why it's optional. But it can be helpful to have it specified explicitly.

ABNF:

SOCIALPROFILE-param =

"VALUE=uri" / pid-param / pref-param / any-param

SOCIALPROFILE-value =

uri

Examples:

  socialProfile;type=linkedin:http://www.linkedin.com/in/barryleiba

  socialProfile;type=facebook:http://www.facebook.com/barackobama

3.4.  Property: photoAlbum

Purpose:

Designates an online "photo album".

Value type:

A single URI value.

Cardinality:

(0,n)

Special note:

This property SHOULD include the parameter "TYPE" to specify the name of the photo album service that it refers to. Usually, that will also be discernible from the URI, which is why it's optional. But it can be helpful to have it specified explicitly.

ABNF:

PHOTOALBUM-param =

"VALUE=uri" / pid-param / pref-param / any-param

PHOTOALBUM-value =

uri

Example:

  photoAlbum;type=flickr:http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryleiba/

3.5.  Property: depiction

Purpose:

A depiction of something.

Value type:

A single value. The default is binary value. It can also be reset to uri value.

Cardinality:

(0,n)

Special notes:

A common use of depiction (and depicts) is to indicate the contents of a digital image, for example the people or objects represented in an online photo gallery.
The basic notion of 'depiction' could also be extended to deal with multimedia content (video clips, audio),

Example:

  depiction;value=uri:http://www.example.com/pub/photos/jqpublic.gif

3.6.  Property: socialCode

Purpose:

Description of the vCard owner, in the form of a "social code", such as the "geek code" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek_code). Social codes are popularly used to exchange a large amount of social information in a compact way, and provide a somewhat frivolous and willfully obscure "fun" mechanism for characterizing technical expertise, interests, and habits.

Value type:

A single text value.

Cardinality:

(0,n)

Special notes:

This property MUST include the parameter "TYPE" to specify the type of social network code being used. There are no predefined values for "TYPE", here -- the types will be understood (or not) by the vCard users.
If the code contains characters that have to be quoted, such as COLON, SEMICOLON, or COMMA, remember to enclose the value in quotes.

ABNF:

SOCIALCODE-param =

"VALUE=text" / pid-param / pref-param / any-param

SOCIALCODE-value =

text

Example:

  socialCode;type=geek:"s: a--"

        [Which means "I'm average size, and my age is 20-24."]

3.7.  Property: interest

Purpose:

Lists the vCard owner's interests (social, recreational, technical, etc.). This allows users to identify others with common interests.

Value type:

One or more text values separated by a COMMA character (ASCII decimal 44).

Cardinality:

(0,n)

ABNF:

INTEREST-param =

"VALUE=text" / pid-param / pref-param / any-param

INTEREST-value =

text

Example:

  interest:Internet standards

  interest:New business proposals, Consulting, Job offers

3.8.  Property: topicInterest

Purpose:

A thing of interest to this person.

Value type:

One or more text values separated by a COMMA character (ASCII decimal 44).

Cardinality:

(0,n)

Special note:

The purpose is to link a person to some thing that is a topic of their interests (rather than, per interest to a page that is about such a topic).

ABNF:

TOPICINTEREST-param =

"VALUE=text" / pid-param / pref-param / any-param

TOPICINTEREST-value =

text

Example:

  topicInterest:Reading SciFi, Writing travel blogs

3.9.  Property: XX

Template for adding another property. Remove this paragraph. (This will also hold some references for the time being: [RFC2425] (Howes, T., Smith, M., and F. Dawson, “A MIME Content-Type for Directory Information,” September 1998.) [RFC2426] (Dawson, F. and T. Howes, “vCard MIME Directory Profile,” September 1998.) [RFC2739] (Small, T., Hennessy, D., and F. Dawson, “Calendar Attributes for vCard and LDAP,” January 2000.) [RFC4770] (Jennings, C. and J. Reschke, Ed., “vCard Extensions for Instant Messaging (IM),” January 2007.) )

Purpose:

Purpose here.

Value type:

A single text value.

Cardinality:

(0,n)

Special note:

Remove this section if there are no notes.

ABNF:

XX-param =

"VALUE=text" / pid-param / pref-param / any-param

XX-value =

text

Example:

  xx:zz

4.  Security Considerations

TBD

5.  IANA Considerations

TBD

6.  References

6.1. Normative References

6.2. Informative References

Authors' Addresses