After 6 degrees, I forgot all about FOAF. But now there are quite a few new players other than friendster, like tribe and recently friendzy. So far it seems that dating, networking, and a small market place are the only uses foaf has to offer.
But if you break foaf down into two components, you get; trust and services.
The trust component could be visualized as MS Passport + pub/priv signed key chains. Where the trust relationship strength is determined by distance.
The services could range from dating services to backend email verification (if you are not whithin 10 degrees of my trust network, you are flagged as possible spam).
Or for P2P, if you are vouched for by some degree (your not an RIAA lawyer), you can download my mp3 files. And conversely, I can browse everyone's files in the network even though i don't really know them.
So I would like to see the next step in the foaf space to be some sort of web service interface to your foaf network that I can authenticate you against when you send me email, or hit my mp3 server. Or my evite invitation can be sourced with close friends. Or I just want to update or store my contact lists.
[updated 11/11/03] Something to consider.
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