Even though it's Thanksgiving - and the blogosphere is, perhaps, quieter than usual, major shifts are going on for the Web, Social Networks and what is commonly called the "Social Graph"; Tim Berners-Lee wrote a post a few days ago titled Giant Global Graph where he advocates for a "Social Network Portability" community.

"...Its not the Social Network Sites that are interesting -- it is the Social Network itself. The Social Graph. The way I am connected, not the way my Web pages are connected.

"...The less inviting side of sharing is losing some control. Indeed, at each layer --- Net, Web, or Graph --- we have ceded some control for greater benefits.

"...thinking in terms of the graph rather than the web is critical to us making best use of the mobile web, the zoo of wildly differing devices which will give us access to the system. Then, when I book a flight it is the flight that interests me. Not the flight page on the travel site, or the flight page on the airline site, but the URI (issued by the airlines) of the flight itself. That's what I will bookmark. And whichever device I use to look up the bookmark, phone or office wall, it will access a situation-appropriate view of an integration of everything I know about that flight from different sources. The task of booking and taking the flight will involve many interactions. And all throughout them, that task and the flight will be primary things in my awareness, the websites involved will be secondary things, and the network and the devices tertiary."

I know that we, at the Web Analytics Association, particularly, my Social Media Committee, are exploring creating standards for Social Media and also, building a Social Network - a task we have just really started.

But Tim Berners-Lee goes past the idea of a Social Network but looking at the actual relationships we have, in any social network - and suggests that we can dis-enfranchise the relationships from the "container" they're held in - so they can be re-used in different ways, ways the creator of that program/information, device, never imagined or planned - and all of that, ultimately, for the good.

Marshall Sponder - WAA Director - Social Media and Community