With Bryght's release of the foaf.module [1], Drupal now supports the FOAFnet [2]
spec. FOAF, short for "Friend of a Friend", is the only open format for
exchanging profile information, made popular by many social networking
sites.
Drupal has long been considered one of the leading
open-source content management and application frameworks. The addition
of FOAF capabilities and being able to synchronize profile information
between any other Drupal-powered sites makes it the logical choice for
building communities that include social networking features.
The
synchronization feature means that by creating and filling out profile
information on one site, a user can then use that login (based on
Drupal's distributed authentication) to automatically have the same
information appear on other sites without having to re-enter or update
information.
Bryght's foaf.module enables:
- automatically importing/synchronizing profile information between any Drupal-powered sites
- importing profile information from external FOAF files
- exporting a FOAF file based on a user's profile
In addition, if the buddylist.module [3] is installed, the exported FOAF information will also list your "buddies".
Congratulations to James [4] for his hard work in developing this module, and special thanks as well to our supporters, CivicSpace Labs [5] and Marc Canter [6].
Our public wiki includes a list of sites with the foaf.module installed [7] - feel free to add your own to the list.