vCard Format Extension : To Represent the Social Network Information of an Individual
draft-george-vcarddav-vcard-extension-02

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.

Status of this Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

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This Internet-Draft will expire on January 29, 2011.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

1.  Introduction
1.1.  Terminology Used in This Document

2.  Social Network Properties
2.1.  Property: OpenID
2.2.  Property: socialProfile
2.3.  Property: album
2.4.  Property: depiction
2.5.  Property: socialCode
2.6.  Property: interest
2.7.  Property: XX

3.  Security Considerations

4.  IANA Considerations

5.  References
5.1.  Normative References
5.2.  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,” July 2010.) 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.

1.1.  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,” July 2010.).

2.  Social Network Properties

These properties are related to sharing social-network information. The basis for these properties came from the "Friend of a Friend" (FOAF) specification, http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/ , and we should consider other aspects of that specification. Do we want to align directly with FOAF items?

2.1.  Property: OpenID

[anchor1] (*** Maybe this should be something like "authentication;type=openid:" instead? *** Barry)

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

2.2.  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

2.3.  Property: album

Purpose:

Designates an online album, such as a photo album or video album.

Value type:

A single URI value.

Cardinality:

(0,n)

Special note:

This property SHOULD include the parameter "TYPE" to specify the type of album 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:

ALBUM-param =

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

ALBUM-value =

uri

Example:

  album;type=photo:http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryleiba
  album;type=video:http://www.youtube.com/user/barryleiba

2.4.  Property: depiction

[anchor2] (*** What's the difference between this and "photo", from the base spec? *** (Barry))

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

2.5.  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."]

2.6.  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)

Special notes:

This property MAY include the parameter "TYPE" to group interests in categories. TYPE might be used to separate "business" interests from "social" interests, for example. There are no predefined values for "TYPE", here -- the types will be understood (or not) by the vCard users, and it's likely that an ad hoc taxonomy will develop, as has happened with social tagging.

ABNF:

INTEREST-param =

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

INTEREST-value =

text

Example:

  interest;type=business:Internet standards,consulting,job offers
  interest;type=social:friends and family,new friends
  interest;type=hobby:model trains,reading Sci Fi,travel
  interest;type=music:classical,jazz,folk,opera

2.7.  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

3.  Security Considerations

TBD

4.  IANA Considerations

TBD

5.  References

5.1. Normative References

5.2. Informative References

Authors' Addresses