Connections Open Data
DraftA machine-readable representation of connections between profiles.
Purpose
Connections Open Data is a machine-readable way to represent connections between profiles: who knows whom, employment, delegation and the other typed edges the model already defines. connection is the word everywhere, in the standard and in product copy alike, never Network.
Scope
Covers a connection's type, its state (claimed or confirmed), when it was formed, and the source it came from. It does not cover private messaging, activity feeds, or anything beyond the existence and type of a connection.
Motivation
Connections are most of what makes a profile useful to a representative: who someone knows, who they work for, who is authorised to act for them. Today that graph lives inside whichever product built it. Connections Open Data lets a connection be published, signed and read independently of any one product.
Guiding principles
- A connection is a typed edge between two subjects, never a new kind of primitive.
- A claimed connection is one-sided until the other party signs a matching claim; the standard never renders a one-sided claim as mutual.
- Beautiful holds the graph it is authorised to hold; Connections Open Data is the projection a participant chooses to publish, never the full private graph.
Current status
Draft. Beautiful's profile host publishes an early version of this shape (imported from LinkedIn connections) today, the vocabulary of connection types is still narrow and no versioned technical specification has been published.
Repository
Not yet published.
Discussion
Not yet open. A discussion venue will be announced alongside the first published specification.