What has emerged is [...]]]> The May 27th event was helpful in thinking about where we stand and where there are opportunities to move forward around purposeful social networking.  Over the course of discussions at the event, and in conversation since then, the outline of a potential path for Planetwork seems to be coming into focus.

What has emerged is the idea of using Planetwork as it’s own use case to implement a sequence of goals:

1) Assemble, and offer an easy way for others to share and replicate, a  basic suite of existing integrated server-side applications and web-services that most NGO’s (and many small businesses) would also need. (Integrated login, and ideally data exchange, across: WordPress,  CRM, knowledge base, email management, event management, payment, fulfillment, etc.)

2) Establish a Planetwork implementation of a “Trust Framework” under OIX for mediating the relationship between an NGO (or even a commercial entity’s) CRM, and an individual citizen/member, using one or more of the early existing VRM systems.  (A Trust Framework is an existing open standard for defining a combination of both the terms of a contractual social agreement and the technical implementation of a data exchange protocol.)

3) Use the Planetwork CRM to model the relationship between an individual and an NGO under the Trust Framework.  Generalize the API to the CRM/VRM interface as an open standard.

This appears to offer a relatively straightforward path to do several things:

a) Implement the suite of tools that Planetwork needs to be a functional network.

b) Model that suite of functional integrated tools so that it might begin to form the basis for the network of networks to a collection of NGO’s.

c) Implement an open standard for identity that could form the basis of the Planetwork purposeful social network brand and trust framework,

d) Lay the foundation for individuals being able to interact with NGO’s (and ultimately commercial companies) as aspects of their identity using available VRM dashboards.

If this worked, we could also potentially build in infrastructure that might form a platform for beginning to implement and explore other ideas that have long been discussed in the Planetwork community, including for example, emergent polling, network visualization, knowledge mapping, emergent media, micro-payment and community currency exchange systems, etc.

This may also offer a path to integrate the major axis of tension, or dialectic, in the current discussion between:

What can we implement now? At low cost, using available technology.

What would we need to do now to help lay the foundation for a truly robust identity-based purposeful social networking infrastructure?

Suggested Thematic Areas:
Practical Next Steps for the Network of Networks Project
Technical Discussion of How to Combine Existing Functionality
[...]]]> 10:00 Welcoming Remarks
Planetwork Update
Two Minute Introductions
11:30 Project Summary Presentations
Framing Remarks
1:00 Lunch
2:00 Breakout Conversations
5:00 Closing Session
6:00 Conclude

Suggested Thematic Areas:
Practical Next Steps for the Network of Networks Project
Technical Discussion of How to Combine Existing Functionality
State of Digital Identity Implementation
Financial Models for Distributed Network