The paradigm used initially by social networks. Each social network is an island (a “walled garden”) of information and the user has to replicate his information and create a separate account in each of them. Today some providers allow a limited form of interoperability, namely sharing of authentication credentials, but in an ad hoc form and more in the commercial interest of the providers than in a genuine concern on the user and his privacy and points of view.
Published in Chapter:
Bridging Provider-Centric and User-Centric Social Networks
José C. Delgado (Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2012
|Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-168-9.ch004
Abstract
Current social networks are centralized and driven by the providers’ formats, policies, and rules. Subscribing to several networks usually implies duplicating profile information and the effort of replicating changes when needed. Recently, there have been several proposals to support decentralized social networks, but these maintain the client-server paradigm. This chapter recognizes that the user is no longer a mere consumer, but rather a producer, and calls for a paradigm shift, with the user at the center of the social network scenarios, taking the role of an active service, in equal terms with social network providers. This leads to a unified user model: both individual and institutional entities are both users and providers and share the same protocols, although with different emphasis. We call this the user-centric approach and show a migration path from current social network models. To support this approach, we present a new Web access device, the browserver, which includes a browser and a server working in close cooperation, with the goal of replacing the classical browser but being backwards compatible with it to ease the migration path.