[OpenID] Walled gardens, different countries

[SitG Admin]

>I like your analogy, but I think it's not
>	allied shops ... that ... accept that bank's money
>but
>	allied shops ... that ... trust that bank's guarantees about 
>a customer's capital in the bank

In reading about decentralized social networks (through OpenID or 
XML), I encountered the insightful observation that none of these 
sites own our actual social relationships. They own ways of 
expressing them, but if the site goes down (or changes its data on 
us), we still have the relationships with the people we know. (We may 
not be able to communicate with them anymore, and this is what I 
despise about the "walled garden" approach: if not for the ease of 
exchanging means of 3rd-party communication, social networking sites 
could effectively hold your friends hostage to your continued 
loyalty!)

Can the "capital in the bank" be matched to the user's social 
relationships, with the choice of bank being "I rely on you to keep 
safe the *information* about my social relationships that I have just 
entrusted you with.", and the bank's loans being a "slip of credit" 
for the information within? Information which, obviously, they would 
not be able to loan out anymore, if the user stopped involving their 
business!

-Shade