Brad Fitzpatrick (creator of LiveJournal) and David Recordon authored a manifesto calling for a unifed, open source social network API. Fascinating read.

Brad proposes an open-source API to tie together the tons of social networking sites out there. Users would have one profile and one set of friends that would automagically work across all other social sites.

For example, you sign up for Facebook and your MySpace friends who have Facebooks are automatically added to your Facebook friends list.

• Benefit to web developers - you don't have to build out the social (eg., adding friends) part of your service. Concentrate on the real problem you're solving.
• Benefit to end users - manage just one profile, instead of going through the same motions for every MyFaceLinkedSter. 

I would love to see this happen!

(via A VC)