[microformats-discuss] Re: Proposing RelSource

Tue Jul 12 13:04:28 PDT 2005

On Jul 12, 2005, at 14:17, Tim White wrote:
> "Citing one's reference's references may be strictly proper to some
> minds but to me it seems an undue burden on the author. With wide
> acceptance, the practice of citing one degree of reference will
> provide sufficient interlinking to enable a spider to infer a
> reasonably accurate citation chain.
>> Trying to squash an Ad Infinitum between two pennies,
> Andy"
>> I've got to agree with Andy, I don't know of anybody who cites a
> reference's reference. (I'm sure it happens, just not in my circle.)

I have to say, I would not do this either, but I saw Tim O'Reilly do 
it just the other day on the O'Reilly Radar when he cited Steve 
Mallet for passing a reference to him.
I suspect the real reason you see interest in this idea is that it 
would be commercially "exciting" to be able to reliably extract 
reference chains to help decipher chains of influence. 
Alternatively, it might be a way of charging people for content. I 
spent time with a guy at SXSW this year who wanted to give 
intermediaries in decentralized music distribution a cut of the take 
for each song that was downloaded through them. He had a business 
model built on this. What's being talked about here is the same 
thing, just in social whuffie terms.
My personal recommendation to folks interested in this idea would be 
to work up the proposal and then see if there is an easy, feasible 
way for people to actually do it. If not, keep it on the books and 
refer people to it every time it comes up. See if they can find a way.
The real issue I think is creating a tenable value-proposition for 
the non-super-geek.
Bud