Cliqset Could Be The Web's First Read-Write Identity Provider
You can log in to comment here on ReadWriteWeb with an OpenID, via Facebook Connect or through various other methods. Imagine if you could make "friend" connections with other commenters on our site. That relationship wouldn't be reflected back into the OpenID or Facebook account that you then take to other sites.
If it did, that could be a real game changer. We'd love to introduce our smart and sassy readers to each other here and then see them be friends on social networks, mobile sites and all around the web. Just a pipe dream? That's what a brand new identity provider called Cliqset aims to make possible. We believe it's the first identity provider of its type that allows 3rd parties to change user profile information, not just read it.
Cliqset isn't a social network that you'd go and join like you would others, it's more like the glue that ties together your identities across all supporting social networks. Unlike other similar services, though, this portable system of identity, contacts and activities works two ways. It allows your identity to be changed by what you do around the web, it doesn't just serve up a centralized identity to dependent lesser networks you log in to. This identity provider could treat supporting sites much more as equals than Facebook does, for example.
Cliqset uses the OAuth data standard to do all this, so it doesn't even have to ask for your password to the networks you want to connect.
Who's using Cliqset so far? Unfortunately, the geeks behind Cliqset don't do a very good job explaining what they do and they don't have any examples other than their own site today at launch.
That could change soon, though. The company has released a variety of code libraries for developers to drop Cliqset support into their applications. At launch there are Java, iPhone and .net for Windows Mobile libraries. A PHP library is forthcoming. All the libraries will be open sourced and posted to Google Code.
Facebook Connect lets 3rd parties publish updates to a user's activity stream, but that's about it. We asked a number of hardcore identity geeks whether they had seen anything quite like Cliqset before and no one had. There are OpenID and related specifications aiming to accomplish just this, but nothing in the wild yet, according to the OpenID Foundation and Six Apart's David Recordon.
Recordon is a little concerned about seeing another company release an API to accomplish what Cliqset aims to do. "At first glance, it seems like Cliqset is leaning in the correct direction with their support of OAuth for APIs and OpenID for sign in, but are still creating their own APIs - ala Facebook Connect - when dealing with profiles and activities," he told us. "This is both yet another validation of the work by the wider DiSo community and opportunity to finalize the Portable Contacts and Activity Streams specifications for broad adoption on the social web."
We asked Cliqset specifically about Facebook Connect, whether it wasn't in the company's interest to implement a Read/Write capability in its identity system as well. They said they believed it was but that they expected the giant social network to take much longer to implement this key feature. By offering iPhone and Windows Mobile libraries right out of the gate, we think Cliqset could move quickly in the mobile world as well.
Unfortunately, the company isn't doing a terribly good job of explaining its fundamental value proposition so far. We're not the first site to cover Cliqset today (see PC World's coverage for example) and everyone else is writing up the company as just one more cross-site identity provider. There's more than that going on here, but we'll see if this startup with what it calls "the most robust APIs you'll find anywhere" is able to make the market headway that its innovative vision seems to warrant.
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I registered but it didn't seem any different than myBlogLog or Strands or Friendfeed. I suppose a developer might see something else that I don't. I didn't see much in the way of developer information though.
Perhaps this is the part where they aren't explaining things very well as I'm still at a loss as to how this is any different from the other services I mentioned.
I'm not so much concerned about own APIs since there is still no complete set of needed standards for this service class anyway, yet. All work in progress. Cliqset can still a-posteriori adopt to an emerging standard.
What I like is the social web making progress week by week converging in the shared vision that has so many names these days: Open Mesh, Open Stack, Web of Identities etc. pp.
Write-to API access is clearly the missing link in user-centric identity management. It is also threatens the ambitions to control data by Facebook connect, Google Friend Connect, MySpace data-availability, etc. etc.
If the business case were not threatening, there is still a valid security arguement with write-to APIs that is not reflected in the article above.
I can remember sitting with the smart and earnest guys who head-up MySpace data-availability begging them to release a write-to API to help save their hemorrhaging profile loss to Facebook (and give user-centric identity advocates a powerful write-to instance.) They explained that the security concerns posed by an write-to API kept this dream quite far away. I'm not able to validate this, perhaps some other readers can.
It would be really nice to have a central connection between all these 'friends' in different social networks with a single signon. A universal repository so to speak. Friendfeed.. eh, it's okay, but in the long run, you have the same problem, your friends have to be on there too.
Marshall,
So, DandyID (www.dandyid.org) actually already does a lot of what Cliqset is aiming to do. Broadly, DandyID is aiming to create an identity graph and data portability platform that will allow users to share and distribute information about their social identities wherever they go on the web. Our API already supports push and pull for services (social identity endpoints) and profile information. We also suggest relationships based on your endpoints and once they're verified by the user, we make that information available to other services via Portable Contacts. We don't do messaging, or activities yet, but the service is always evolving and we're constantly adding more functionality.
A lot of what we do offer is out there in the wild already. PeoplePond (www.peoplepond.com), one of our early integrating partners, is pushing profile information now, for example, and they're pushing and pulling identity graph info, as well. And we have a Facebook app under development that will push and pull services information.
We actually just launched a development contest yesterday to try and stimulate more activity around the API (more information on that is here, including some other suggested use cases for our tools: http://www.dandyid.org/blog/?p=122 ).
Cliqset definitely has an ambitious goal, but they're not the first to get something like this out there. We'd love to people to check out both the Cliqset and DandyID APIs and give us any feedback or suggestions. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for everyone to collect and manage their social identities and make that data portable.
Josh Catone
Community Manager, DandyID
Actually, the first web company to do this is none of the above. Several years ago this company did all of this, and has been working hard with the OpenID community to improve the overall experience.
Go check www.trufina.com, they have had an API for a few years as well.
This is a space that is starting to heat up. Will be fun to watch. But go check out Trufina, they have been at this a lot longer than anyone else.
I looked at cliqset a while back, and it did pick my interest. However there's something inherently worrying about "outsourcing" my users data to a small startup. I would much rather wait for a company like Google or rely on Facebook's FriendConnect than doing it with one of these companies.
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We also suggest relationships based on your endpoints and once they're verified by the user, we make that information available to other services via Portable Contacts.http://www.copy-dvd.orgWe'd love to people to check out both the Cliqset and DandyID APIs and give us any feedback or suggestions.
When I first used Cliqset, the familiarity to FriendFeed hit me very hard. You can aggregate your activity from multiple services and update your status plus other standard features that FriendFeed offers. In another words, it was very reminiscent to that of FriendFeed version 1.0 if you will. While at the time I did not think much of it and striked it off my list of social networks to use, with the recent buy-out of FriendFeed, I may be using Cliqset once again.
@webcam take a look at favit.com aggregation is where this services end up. favit goes a little further, it really starts to curate and manage your web stuff.