FOAF-a-Matic N2 Edition

Leigh Dodds's FOAF-a-Matic with storage on the Talis Platform

SPARQL Endpoint

If you already have a FOAF Profile online, post it here:


right now this can't handle relative URIs in the FOAF

Introduction

FOAF-a-matic is a simple Javascript application that allows you to create a FOAF ("Friend-of-A-Friend") description of yourself.

The Forms

Personal

Some information about you, and how people can contact you.

Title (Mr, Mrs, Dr, etc)
First Name
Last Name (Family/Given)
Nickname
Your Email Address
Homepage
Your Picture
Phone Number

Work

Information about the place you work.

Work Homepage
Page describing what you do at work

School

Where did you go to school?

School Homepage

People You Know

Tell FOAF-a-matic about some people you know. Click "Add Friend" to add space to add more people. If you friend already has a FOAF description, then place a link to it in the 'seeAlso' field.

Generate Results

Now you've filled in the details you're ready to be turned into FOAF...

Protect email addresses from spammers


What Next?

Post Your FOAF description

Using the Link Tag

<link rel="meta" type="application/rdf+xml" title="FOAF" href="foaf.rdf" />

Referrals from a Friend

The other recommended way to get your FOAF file indexed is to have someone else (i.e. a friend) point to it. A FOAF spider can then traverse all FOAF files. You can do this by making the following changes to your FOAF description:

  1. Alter the rdf:RDF element to add the RDF Schema namespace, as follows: <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/" xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#">
  2. You can then add links to other FOAF descriptions by adding one rdfs:seeAlso element for each additional file, as follows:
    3. <rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="http://www.example.com/friends.xrdf"/> <rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="http://www.ldodds.com/webwho.xrdf"/>

Update: if your friends already have a FOAF description, then include it in the 'seeAlso' field given in the form above. You can also Refer a Friend to the FOAF-a-matic

Using the FOAF Bulletin Board

An obvious way for applications to discover FOAF descriptions is for there to be a registry of people. I've cooked up a simple way to do this called the FOAF Bulletin Board. Simply visit the FOAFWiki, and edit the FOAFBulletinBoard page and add your name and a link to your FOAF description. I've added mine already which you can use as an example.

Applying the magic of HTML Tidy and XSLT means that applications such as Edd Dumbill's FOAFbot can process this index. Visit the FOAFBot home page for information about how to see it in action.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Creative Commons License

[FOAF Hackery]