Note: This work is now being realized in the DiSo Project.

A number of WordPress plugins could be used to create a DistributedSocialNetwork.

Inspiration from BoingBoing's new social features and Simon Willison's OpenID features including "Your Comments" and "Your Watchlist".

Baseline featureset

• permissions set using whitelists for groups and individuals, as represented by universal identifiers (like OpenIDs or remote accounts)
• site-to-site messaging
• generic activity stream callbacks (like Facebook's Beacon, but that never talks to a third party unless you want it to)
• identity consolidation and federation (hcard subscriptions, profile aggregation)
• universal add-friend API and friends-list portability (add any URL as a friend; or follow or become a fan of a URL; use portable blocklists to filter undesired content; access your friends list on any site without revealing them to the remote site)
• more?

WordPress Plugins

The majority of these plugins are concepts that could be built as plugins for the wp-openid plugin.

• wp-openid-profiles
• wp-openid-kilroy
• wp-openid-favorites
• wp-openid-subscriptions
• wp-openid-avatars
• wp-openid-delegation
• wp-openid-contactform
• wp-openid-watchlist
• wp-@replies
• wp-contactlist
• wp-openid-tagging

Notes

• from FederatedSocialNetworksMeetup in Amsterdam. Source.