Disclaimer: This will be a really dorky entry to anyone that doesn't get excited when they hear the words "distributed identity," "movable type plugin," and "authentication service" in the same sentence.
What is the talkr.net proposal?
talkr will be a distributed identity system that ties
* Get notified of new comments on posts that you've commented on
* Watch what your friends are talking about on other sites
* PGP sign your comments without tons of hassle
There are three main components to talkr's service:
* A Movable Type plugin that manages comments on a particular blog
* A talkr.net website that is notified about new comments on blogs that have the MT plugin and handles some preferences
* Flickr's authentication service which allows us to organize accounts around a distributed identity
Why should we build it?
We should build it because we can build it.
How would it work?
# Joe Blogger installs the MT plugin on their blog (it will consist of a plugin, a perl module, a cgi script, and a few changes to their comment template).
# When someone is posting a comment on their blog, they will have the option of "authenticating with talkr.net" with the click of a button. This button will be integrated with the comment form.
# The button spawns a popup to mt-talkr.cgi (on their server) which checks for a mt-talkr cookie.
# If mt-talkr.cgi finds a cookie, it grabs the id from the cookie and requests the personal details from talkr.net (this includes name, email address, url, buddyicon (all, in turn, from flickr), and any notification preferences).
# If mt-talkr.cgi doesn't find a cookie it forwards the request to talkr.net and checks for a cookie there.
# If talkr.net finds a cookie it returns the information stored to mt-talkr.cgi, who sets a cookie
# If talkr.net doesn't find a cookie it sets a few cookies (so it knows where to return to eventually) and forwards the request to flickr. They click a button to authenticate, and then travel backwards to talkr, which asks them which information they'd like to allow the blog they're commenting on to view, and whether or not they want to be notified of new comments, etc. Then it sends them back to mt-talkr.cgi which sets a cookie and uses javascript to add the requested details into the form of the parent window (where they were leaving a comment) and close the popup.
Example use cases:
Seems like a lot of work, but if you think about it most of it happens behind the scenes. The first time you use this it will require the following clicks:
# Click button to open popup.
# Authenticate on flickr.
# Choose which details to allow them to use from talkr.
# Write your comment and submit.
And from then on, on that particular blog:
# Click button to open popup and pull your information in (it does everything it needs to and automatically closes after updating the comment form)
# Write your comment and submit.
After the first time on any blog anywhere, it will take these steps:
# Click button to open popup.
# Choose which details to allow them to use.
# Write your comment and submit.
If you want to change preferences or anything else, there will be another link in the comment form that lets you do that.
You can also go to talkr at any point and set up other things like your PGP signed key, your notification preferences, etc. It'll also be able to aggregate things and find "most popular posts your friends are commenting on" and provide rss feeds galore.
What happens when a comment is placed on a talkr-enabled blog?
Movable Type's plugin will notify talkr.net of new comments, and that will check to see who wants to be notified of comments (either by that person or on that entry or on that blog) and notify them (either through email or by updating an RSS feed or by waiting to batch it into a daily email). Easy as that.
What else could talkr do?
It could check to see if the comment is being placed on a trusted public blacklist. It could store your foaf profile. It could remotely submit an entry to your weblog API of choice to build a "recent comments elsewhere" blog. It could convince GWB to step down as President and let bloggers rule the world (wait, that would probably suck).
Am I smoking something or is this super cool?
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