# Chris Messina > Inventor of the hashtag. Product Hunt insider. Helping founders nail their launches. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages - [On a mission to make myself useful.](https://www.chrismessina.me/about.md) - Since 2004, I’ve lived on the edge of social technology. As a generalist, I’ve worn many hats including product designer, investor, founder, developer advocate, community organizer, open source advocate, technologist, app researcher, bug reporter, speaker, podcaster, gardener, home owner, and famil… - [Book a call](https://www.chrismessina.me/call-me.md) - [Contact](https://www.chrismessina.me/contact.md) - Hi! I’m glad you want to get in touch. 👋🏻 If you want help with a Product Hunt launch, start with a paid strategy or review session first. That’s the best way to get my eyes on your product and figure out whether it’s a fit for a hunt. Book a strategy call If you’re contacting me about Product Hu… - [Deals & Recommendations](https://www.chrismessina.me/deals.md) - These are products, services, and apps that I use and that I think you’ll appreciate. In some cases, I’m passing on an exclusive discount code that’s been generated for me by the founder or maker to share with you. In other cases, I’ll link to a referral program that’ll benefit both of us. This is… - [Feedback](https://www.chrismessina.me/feedback.md) - [Chris Messina](https://www.chrismessina.me/home.md) - Inventor of the Hashtag #1 Product Hunter Investor & Product Designer I've been making things on the internet since 2005 — blogging, building open standards, advocating for an open social web, and eventually coining the hashtag, which turned out to be one of those ideas that got away from me in the… - [I can help you nail your Product Hunt launch](https://www.chrismessina.me/hunt-me.md) - Launching on Product Hunt is a great way to introduce your product to a large, very engaged community of early adopters, product savants, investors, indiemakers, and enthusiasts. It can accelerate your growth and help you rally your existing audience to spread the word about your product. As with m… - [Invite me to be your hunter](https://www.chrismessina.me/invite-me.md) - You can invite a hunter to “showcase” your Product Hunt launch once you’ve scheduled your launch. Simply edit your launch and under the Hunter & Makers section, search for and then invite me to be your hunter. You’ll need to send me the invite link so I can accept your invitation. - [Playlists](https://www.chrismessina.me/playlists.md) - All year long I assemble playlists of music that is new to me in various themes and genres. At the end of the year, I design cover artwork to illustrate each. Find my playlists and more on Spotify. Please enjoy. 2025 Inspired by a few of my favorite creators. 2024 Original artwork by xenotrip. 2023… - [Press](https://www.chrismessina.me/press.md) - I've been a source, subject, and commentator for journalists and researchers since 2005 — first on the open web and digital identity, then on the hashtag and its cultural aftermath, and more recently on AI, social platforms, and what it means to build things that last. I enjoy talking to press and… - [Speaking](https://www.chrismessina.me/speaking.md) - I've been speaking publicly since 2004 — from intimate workshops to 70,000-person festivals, from startup founders to the Federal Reserve. I've done two TEDx talks, keynoted Google I/O and SXSW, and most recently spoke at the AI Native Dev Conference in November 2025. My talks tend to sit at the in… - [What the best makers say about working with me](https://www.chrismessina.me/testimonials.md) - Again and again, founders tell me that our work together brings clarity and momentum. I make it a priority to quickly understand complex products, distill the core story, and share practical, actionable steps that boost visibility, confidence, and drive results. In the high-stakes moments leading u… ## Posts - [Three archetypes for post‑LLM builders](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/code-as-commodity.md) - Observations on software development since I hunted ChatGPT in 2022 - [Hashtags in the Sky](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/hashtags-in-the-sky.md) - So Bluesky wants to change how hashtags work - [A funeral for @chrismessina 🪦🥀](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/a-funeral-for-chrismessina.md) - Welcome to my third digital demise - [just setting up my substack notes](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/just-setting-up-my-substack-notes.md) - A new place to connect, that isn't Twitter - [The mint edition NFT episode — Today's Twitter Space at 6pm PST/9pm EST](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-mint-edition-nft-episode-todays.md) - The weekly Techmeme Ride Home Experience 🔴 - [Some news... and: a livestream today! 🏆](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/some-news-and-a-livestream-today.md) - Delving into the wonderful world of Airtable and Alfred Workflows at 3pm PST - [Join me at the 2020 Golden Kitty Awards!](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/join-me-at-the-2020-golden-kitty.md) - I’ll keep this brief, but I’m going to be participating in Product Hunt’s annual Golden Kitty Awards tomorrow, hosted by excellent-haired Substacker Casey Newton, with special guests Josh Buckley, Tiffany Zhong, and Lolita Taub. I’ll be joining a panel of these esteemed folks right around 1pm PST.… - [🎩 Free Icon Starter Set for Alfred users](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/-free-icon-starter-set-for-alfred.md) - 🆕 Just released 20 custom icons for Alfred Web Searches! - [2500 hunts and counting...](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/2500-hunts-and-counting.md) - Two big milestones and a hint at what's next...! - [🎧 Podcast interview with Brett Goldstein (@thatguyBG) on digital identity, design, and inventing the hashtag](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/podcast-interview-with-brett-goldstein.md) - 🎧 Podcast interview with Brett Goldstein (@thatguyBG) on digital identity, design, and inventing the hashtag0:00/2001× Hey there! Remember me? I know it’s been a while since you last heard from me (geez, has it already been nine months! I know I know… 🙄) but in the meantime it seems like newslett… - [Defining "open"](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/1313-2.md) - Standards represent a state of understanding, more or less at a code or API-level, that multiple parties can agree on. A standard may not necessary support all potential use cases, but it should be developed to cover the common cases well, and make the uncommon cases not impossible to support. The… - [Silicon Valley is All Wrong About the Cybertruck](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/silicon-valley-is-all-wrong-about.md) - Elon Musk’s future Tesla is a truck like the iPhone is a phone - [Happy #HashtagDay!](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/happy-hashtagday.md) - The 11th hashtagiversary, a quick favor, upcoming speaking events, and early access to a new project... - [Something wicked this way walks](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/coming-soon-69c0b2fe7d72e5001b29dd20.md) - I’ve never been very good at spamming people’s inboxes because I can barely keep up with my own. But still, some very fine people have expressed an interest in hearing from me from time to time, and since I still inhabit this mortal shell, I might as well put in some effort to make good on that. So… - [Happy birthday to me! I’m joining Google](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/happy-birthday-to-me-im-joining-google.md) - Yes friends, I’m turning 29 and I’ve decided to go work for The Man. In all actuality, I’ve been mulling over such a move for some time, considering a number of compelling opportunities for my next step. After reviewing my options — in light of the progress I’ve made so far and my familiarity and e… - [The Fall of Vidoop](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-fall-of-vidoop.md) - When I left Flock in 2006, I blogged the occasion, having helped start the company by contributing a vision for what I thought the web needed: a social browser. When I was laid off from Vidoop last month, I didn't so much as tweet about it. The circumstances were different this time. But because th… - [Michael Moore's advice to Obama on General Motors](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/michael-moores-advice-to-obama-on-general-motors-2.md) - Michael Moore is a polarizing figure with a mild-mannered way of suggesting some rather far-fetched, ultra-liberal ideas. I find myself often feeling swayed by his emphaticness but more often than not, unconvinced by the logic of his arguments. That said, he does from time to time incite a good dea… - [Stowe Boyd launches Microsyntax.org](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/stowe-boyd-launches-microsyntax-org.md) - Stowe Boyd launched Microsyntax.org this morning and announced that I will be the first member of his advisory board. Stowe and I have batted around a number of ideas for making posts on Twitter contain more information than what is superficially presented, and this new effort should create a space… - [The open, social web](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-open-social-web.md) - I was in Europe for the past week and half, ending up in Leuven, Belgium to speak at the Twiist.be conference. The topic of my talk was "The Open, Social Web." (PDF) http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayerd.swf?doc=thedisoproject-090515121321-phpapp02&rel=0&stripped_title=the-open-social-web A… - [Comixology and the future of connected commerce](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/comixology-and-the-future-of-connected-commerce.md) - It dawned on me recently that, not only are we in a period of great change and transformation, but that those of us who have been working on the web to make it a more social and humane place have only barely begun the process of taking the "personality-ization" (not "personalization") and connected… - [Google Profiles, namespace lock-in & social search](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/google-profiles-namespace-lock-in-social-search-2.md) - I'd originally intended to respond to Joshua Schacter's post about URL shorteners and how they're merely the tip of the data iceberg, but since I missed that debate, Google has fortuitously plied me with an even better example by releasing custom profile URLs today. My point is to reiterate one of… - [Google Profiles, namespace lock-in & social search](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/google-profiles-namespace-lock-in-social-search.md) - I'd originally intended to respond to Joshua Schacter's post about URL shorteners and how they're merely the tip of the data iceberg, but since I missed that debate, Google has fortuitously plied me with an even better example by releasing custom profile URLs today.My point is to reiterate one of T… - [Portable Profiles & Preferences on the Citizen-Centric Web](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/portable-profiles-preferences-on-the-citizen-centric-web.md) - Let me state the problem plainly: in order to provide better service, it helps to know more about your customer, so that you can more effectively anticipate and meet her needs. But, pray tell, how do you learn about or solicit such information over the course of your first interaction? Moreover, ho… - [Portable Profiles & Preferences on the Citizen-Centric Web](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/portable-profiles-preferences-on-the-citizen-centric-web-2.md) - Let me state the problem plainly: in order to provide better service, it helps to know more about your customer, so that you can more effectively anticipate and meet her needs.But, pray tell, how do you learn about or solicit such information over the course of your first interaction? Moreover, how… - [Does OpenID need to be hard?](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/does-openid-need-to-be-hard.md) - Prompted by posts by Randy Reddig and Tony Stubblebine and a conversation with Elliott Kember, I wanted to address, yet again, the big fat stinking elephant in the room: OpenID usability and the paradox of choice. Elliott proposed a pretty clear picture of what he thinks OpenID should look like on… - [One day left for early-bird discounts to the Internet Identity Workshop](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/one-day-left-for-early-bird-discounts-to-the-internet-identity-workshop.md) - I'll be attending the upcoming Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) May 18-20, 2009 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The event started in 2005 and has become a staple of the identity community over the past several years, contributing to the emergence of technologies like Op… - [My name is not a URL](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/my-name-is-not-a-url.md) - Arrington has a post that claims that Facebook is getting wise to something MySpace has known from the start - users love vanity URLs. I don't buy it. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the omission of vanity URLs on Facebook is an intentional design decision from the beginning, and one that I've learne… - [Open-washing and the CamelOpenCircle ...Jerk](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/openwashing.md) - (Filed under: sharks jumped.) Brynn got this in the mail last week and shared it with me. Let's just say that it struck a nerve. I've worried for some time that "open" as a market differentiator is becoming diluted and washed out, just as "organic" and "green" before. Like "2.0", companies are comi… - [Generation Open](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/generation-open.md) - I spent the weekend in DC at TransparencyCamp, an event modeled after BarCamp focused on government transparency and open access to sources of federal data (largely through APIs and web services). Down the street, a social-media savvy conference called PowerShift convened over 12,000 of the nation'… - [How to use Twimailer securely](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/how-to-use-twimailer-securely.md) - Twimailer is a nifty service that launched recently that makes Twitter BACN ("email that you want, just not right now") more useful and informative (example). The only problem is that it requires you to change your Twitter account email to point to an address provided by Twimailer — on the whole, n… - [RIP @factoryjoe](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/rip-factoryjoe-2.md) - Sometime last week, after two Manhattans, I decided to change my Twitter username from @factoryjoe to @chrismessina. In the scheme of things, not a big deal (yeah, okay, so I broke a couple thousand hyperlinks...). And yet, I can’t but feel like I’ve shed a skin or changed identities... at least to… - [Future of White Boys' Clubs Redux #fowaspeak](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/future-of-white-boys-clubs-redux-fowaspeak-3.md) - In September of 2006, I wrote a piece called The Future of White Boy Clubs taking to task Ryan Carson for putting together a speaker lineup for his Future of Web Apps conference made up entirely of white men (for the record, Tantek resents being lumped in as "white"; he’s says he’s Turkish). As a w… - [BBC Digital Planet podcast featuring OpenID](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bbc-digital-planet-podcast-featuring-openid-2.md) - Update: The BBC has posted a write-up of the report called Easy login plans gather pace.I was interviewed by Gareth Mitchell last week about OpenID for the BBC's Digital Planet podcast. Our conversation lasted about 10 minutes — of which only about two minutes survived (mirrored here as they curren… - [What really happened at Ma.gnolia and lessons learned](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/what-really-happened-at-magnolia-and-lessons-learned-2.md) - http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3205188&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1 Larry (@lhalff) and I have been recording a podcast for the past year called Citizen Garden that covers various topics related to the web, technology, and social networking… - [This week in video: Facebook and the OpenID Design Workshop](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/this-week-in-video-facebook-and-the-openid-design-workshop-2.md) - http://www.viddler.com/player/423b8f4b/ Needless to say, it's been a big week for the open web, with Facebook joining the OpenID Foundation and hosting an OpenID Design Workshop. Above is the latest episode of theSocialWeb.tv called "An Open Discussion with Facebook", filmed yesterday on location a… - [Where data goes when it dies and other musings](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/where-does-data-go-when-it-dies.md) - I've been wanting to write about Ma.gnolia's catastrophic data loss last week ever since it happened, but wasn't quite sure how I wanted to approach it. Larry (Ma.gnolia founder and the sole person who maintained the site) is a good friend of mine, and Ma.gnolia was one of Citizen Agency's first cl… - [Welcoming Facebook to the OpenID Foundation](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/welcoming-facebook-to-the-openid-foundation.md) - The day after Facebook's 5th birthday, I join David Recordon and the rest of the board of the OpenID Foundation in welcoming Facebook as our newest member, in rapid succession to Paypal just a few weeks ago. The significance of both of these companies investing in and becoming part of the OpenID fa… - [Inaugural Jelly! Talk this Friday: OpenID vs Facebook Connect](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/inaugural-jelly-talk-this-friday-openid-vs-facebook-connect.md) - This Friday, I'll be joined by Dave Morin (my good friend from Facebook) at the first ever Jelly! Talk at Joe and Brian's loft in San Francisco. If you're not familiar with Jelly, you should be. I call it the "gateway drug to coworking" — but it really has its own culture and identity independent o… - [What PayPal's member in the OpenID Foundation could mean](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/what-paypals-member-in-the-openid-foundation-could-mean.md) - Brian Kissel announced this morning that PayPal has joined the board of the OpenID Foundation as our sixth corporate member, with Andrew Nash, Sr., Director of Information Risk Management and a longstanding advocate for OpenID, as their representative. That PayPal has joined is certainly good news,… - [What PayPal's membership in the OpenID Foundation could mean](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/what-paypals-membership-in-the-openid-foundation-could-mean-2.md) - Brian Kissel announced this morning that PayPal has joined the board of the OpenID Foundation as our sixth corporate member, with Andrew Nash, Sr., Director of Information Risk Management and a longstanding advocate for OpenID, as their representative.That PayPal has joined is certainly good news,… - [TheSocialWeb.tv #25: "An 'Open' Letter to the Obama Administration"](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/thesocialwebtv-25-an-open-letter-to-the-obama-administration.md) - http://www.viddler.com/player/95214990/ Last Friday, Joseph, John and I recorded episode #25 of TheSocialWeb.tv. Besides shout outs to 97bottles.com and Janrain for their stats on third-party account login usage, we discussed how the Obama administration might better make use of or leverage element… - [Twitter can has OAuth?](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/twitter-can-has-oauth.md) - Twitter API lead Alex Payne announced today that Twitter is now accepting applications to its OAuth private beta, making good on the promises he made on the Twitter API mailing list and had repeated on the January 8 Citizen Garden podcast (transcript by stilist). It's worth pointing out that this h… - [Farewell W, aloha Obama! (or, Announcing PublicSentiment.net!)](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/farewell-w-aloha-obama-or-announcing-publicsentimentnet.md) - On the eve of President Obama's inauguration, I'm happy to announce a new side project that Brynn, Michael, and I have been working on for the past three weeks called Public Sentiment. At its base, it's simply a site for polling opinions, designed to capture what people are thinking about a certain… - [Perception and reality in the land of OpenID](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/perception-and-reality-in-the-land-of-openid.md) - A couple related posts caught my attention recently about OpenID. As I'm now a board member of the OpenID Foundation, I feel some responsibility for helping to inform folks about OpenID: what it is, how it's used, why I believe that it has so much potential — and at same time, address what it isn't… - [Twitter and the Password Anti-Pattern](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/twitter-and-the-password-anti-pattern.md) - I've written about the password anti-pattern before, and have, with regards to Twitter, advocated for the adoption of some form of delegated authentication solution for some while. It's not as if Twitter or lead developer Alex Payne aren't aware of the need for such a solution (in fact, it's not on… - [The results of the OpenID Board election are in!](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-results-of-the-openid-board-election-are-in.md) - I received an SMS from Michael Richardson this morning (around 8am here in Hawaii) congratulating me on my election to the board of the OpenID Foundation. It seems fitting that I should receive first word from him, since, as the Karl Rove of my campaign, he came up with the "kind of a big deal" slo… - [Responding to criticisms about OpenID: convenience, security and personal agency](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/responding-to-criticisms-about-openid.md) - Chris Dracket responded to one of my tweets the other day, saying that "OpenID should be dead... it's way over-rated". I've of course heard plenty of criticisms of OpenID, but hadn't really heard that it was "overrated" (which implies that people have a higher opinion of OpenID than it merits). Int… - [Where we're going with Activity Streams](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/where-were-going-with-activity-streams.md) - The DiSo Project is just over a year old. It's remained a somewhat amorphous blob of related ideas, concepts and aspirations in my brain, but has resulted in some notable progress, even if such progress appears dubious on the surface. For example, OAuth is a core aspect of DiSo because it enables s… - [I'm a candidate for the board of the OpenID Foundation!](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/im-a-candidate-for-the-board-of-the-openid-foundation.md) - The OpenID Foundation board election opened up on December 10. After a grueling nominations process (not really), we were left with 17 candidates vying for seven community board member seats. Your candidates are (alphabetized by first name): * Allen Tom * Brian Kissel * Chris Messina ← that's me! *… - [Bookmarks for November 24 to December 08](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-november-24-to-december-08.md) - A bi-weekly collection of linky goodness. Fluidity/Discover.io "Fluidity enhances the effectiveness of the social networks you are already on, helping you cut through the noise and identify both new people and old acquaintances to connect with. Today, you would need to explicitly search and message… - [Announcing my candidacy for the board of the OpenID Foundation](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/announcing-my-candidacy-for-the-board-of-the-openid-foundation.md) - This is the statement (credit to Michael Richardson for my campaign slogan) that I submitted to answer the call, nominating myself as a candidate for community representative to the OpenID Foundation board: I have long been involved with the OpenID community and have advocated for its adoption ever… - [Bookmarks for November 10 to November 24](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-november-10-to-november-24.md) - A bi-weekly collection of linky goodness. Garmin | Mac OS X - Current Software, news and more "Garmin is committed to creating a great software experience for all of our customers. This page is dedicated to keeping you up-to-date on our growing range of software made for Mac and helping you enjoy t… - [Why YouTube should support Creative Commons now](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/why-youtube-should-support-creative-commons-now.md) - I was in Miami last week to meet with my fellow screeners from the Knight News Challenge and Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson, two vlogger friends whom I met through coworking, started talking about content licensing, specifically as related to President-Elect Barack Obama's weekly address, which, if t… - [On invite-only betas](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/on-invite-only-betas.md) - Fred Wilson wrote about the value of blogging and building social capital, demonstrated by the hundred requests for invites he received on his post on his recent investment, Boxee, an invite-only service. Now, while I find the behavior of public invite-requesting curious, I understand it. I also th… - [Bookmarks for October 27 to November 10](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-october-27-to-november-10.md) - A bi-weekly collection of linky goodness. Apple - Movie Trailers - Up Looks to be a pretty colorful Pixar movie! Tags: movie, pixar, up, via:mento.info Help, We’re Being Digitally Bombarded | Mark Evans This is a good encapsulation/description of the "information abundance" problem/opportunity! Tag… - [Independent study on OpenID awareness using Mechanical Turk](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/independent-study-on-openid-awareness-using-mechanical-turk.md) - Even though I wasn't able to attend the eighth Internet Identity Workshop this week in Mountain View (check out the latest episode of TheSocialWeb.tv for a glimpse), I wanted to do my part to contribute so I'm sharing the results of a study that Brynn Evans and I performed on Mechanical Turk a shor… - [Lightweight access PINs: a modest proposal for enabling OpenID in desktop and mobile apps](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/lightweight-access-pins-a-modest-proposal-for-enabling-openid-in-desktop-and-mobile-apps.md) - While the news that Google is now an OpenID Provider was generally welcomed, a common chorus decrying their support (along with others large OPs like Yahoo, Microsoft and others) at best as half-hearted, at worst as ruining OpenID has revealed a significant barrier to such large providers becoming… - [OpenID usability is not an oxymoron](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/openid-usability-is-not-an-oxymoron.md) - Julie Zhou of Facebook discusses usability findings from Facebook Connect. Photo © John McCrea. All rights reserved.Monday last week marked the first ever OpenID UX Summit at Yahoo! in Sunnyvale with over 40 in attendance. Representatives came from MySpace, Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, Vidoop, Janrain… - [My argument against Proposition 8](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/my-argument-against-proposition-8.md) - Politics is something that I normally don't cover on my blog, but not for any particularly reason. I typically get more [publicly] worked up about technology and the economics and politics of technological development than I do about directly human-facing issues, but that's not because I've ever lo… - [Obama Phone!](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/obama-phone.md) - If you haven't heard about this yet, the Obama campaign today released an iPhone app that, among other features, enables you to call your friends prioritized by their location in battleground states. This is critical. There's nothing more important, or more influential, than friends encouraging fri… - [Bookmarks for September 01 to September 15](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-september-01-to-september-15.md) - A bi-weekly collection of linky goodness. Bytes of Life - washingtonpost.com "When San Francisco couple Brynn Evans and Chris Messina heard of a new Web site called BedPost, they registered an account before the site was even out of beta. BedPost was created to map users' sex lives online -- everyt… - [After 1984](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/after-1984.md) - iTunes 8 has added a new feature called "Genius" that harnesses the collective behavior of iTunes Music Store shoppers to generate "perfect" playlists. Had an interesting email exchange with my mom earlier today about Monica Hesse's story Bytes of Life. The crux of the story is that more and more p… - [Bookmarks for August 18 to September 01](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-august-18-to-september-01.md) - A bi-weekly collection of linky goodness. Icon Lab - Home Icon Lab is here to provide you with quality stock and custom icons for use in both personal and commercial projects. Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Tags: icons, design GMDesk - run Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Maps as a stand-alone ins… - [Musings on Chrome, the rebirth of the location bar and privacy in the cloud](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/musings-on-chrome-the-rebirth-of-the-location-bar-and-privacy-in-the-cloud.md) - Imagine a browser of the web, by the web, and for the web. Not simply a thick client application that simply opens documents with the http:// protocol instead of file://, but one that runs web applications (efficiently!), that plays the web, that connects people across the boundaries of the silos a… - [Google Chrome and the future of browsers](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/google-chrome-and-the-future-of-browsers.md) - News came today confirming Google's plans for Chrome, its own open source browser based on Webkit. This is big news. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't get much bigger than this, at least in my little shed on the internet. I've been struggling to come to grips with my thoughts on this since I firs… - [Bookmarks for August 04 to August 18](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-august-04-to-august-18.md) - A bi-weekly collection of linky goodness. workalicious: citizenspace - a coworking coop the modern workplace, its furniture, implements, and a bit of its culture Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Tags: citizen space, coworking WordPress Plugin: I Am Here « Code « klauskomenda.com I Am Here is a WordPress plugin th… - [Bookmarks for July 21 to August 04](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-july-21-to-august-04.md) - A bi-weekly collection of linky goodness. XCRI: eXchanging Course-Related Information XCRI is a JISC-funded, UK-oriented project to establish a specification to support the eXchange of Course-Related Information. Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Tags: courseware, specification, open data, education Eco Friend Wel… - [So open it hurts](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/so-open-it-hurts.md) - Bernice Yeung's character piece ("So Open it Hurts") about my relationship with Tara is now available online (feels somewhat awkward using her full name, as she used mine in her post on the story, so I'll take liberties and presume some familiarity on the part of you, my dear reader). On the one ha… - [Bookmarks for July 07 to July 21](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-july-07-to-july-21.md) - A bi-weekly collection of linky goodness. ? Découvrons OAuth avec mixin (et django-oauth) » Django, Web Semantique » Journal » Biologeek, l'avis d'un freelance passionné par le web et son évolution. Good write up (in French) of OAuth. Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Tags: oauth, django mixin authentication — mix… - [The Open Web Foundation](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-open-web-foundation.md) - During this morning's keynote at OSCON, David Recordon announced the formation of the Open Web Foundation (his slides), an initiative with which I am involved, aimed at becoming something akin to a "Creative Commons for patents", with the intention of lowering the costs and barriers to the developm… - [The Community Ampflier](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-community-ampflier.md) - I am honored to be a recipient of this year's Google O'Reilly Open Source Award for being the "best community amplifier" for my work with the microformats, Spread Firefox and BarCamp communities! (See the original call for nominations). Inexplicably I was absent when they handed out the award, hang… - [Bookmarks for Jul 20](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jul-20.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. iclypso Great source of WebClip icons for iPhone and iPod Touch. Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Tags: icons, iphone, bookmarklet Monolab|Workspace Monolab|Workspace is a network of open work places developed in cosmopolitan areas around the world. It is designed for small a… - [Bookmarks for Jul 18](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jul-18.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. Save the Fail Whales Now The fail whale may be going the way of the Dodo if you don’t retweat the message below. The fancy pants engineers over at Twitter are “revamping their system to scale”. This cynical move toward business efficiency puts the fail whale sp… - [Bookmarks for Jul 13](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jul-13.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. ? Découvrons OAuth avec mixin (et django-oauth) » Django, Web Semantique » Journal » Biologeek, l'avis d'un freelance passionné par le web et son évolution. Good write up (in French) of OAuth. Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Tags: oauth, django mixin authentication — mixin d… - [OAuth for the iPhone: Pownce.app](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/oauth-for-the-iphone-pownceapp.md) - If you're one of the lucky folks that's been able to upgrade your iPhone (and activate it) to the 2.0 firmware, I encourage you to give the Pownce application a try, if only to see a real world example of OAuth in action (that link will open in iTunes). Here's how it goes in pictures: And the actua… - [Bookmarks for Jul 10](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jul-10.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. Mashing Twitter and Identi.ca: Following the conversation "Like many, I’ve found the frequent appearance of the Fail Whale discouraging, if not downright frustrating. Not only has Twitter expanded my horizons, it has become an essential tool. Other services jus… - [Bookmarks for Jul 09](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jul-09.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. Christopher Blizzard » Blog Archive » announcing whoisi I’d like to announce the general availability of a project that I’ve been working on in my spare time for the last few months: whoisi.com. If I had to describe it in one sentence I would describe it as a s… - [Bookmarks for Jul 08](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jul-08.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. orkut - oauth This is a community dedicated for the oauth authentication protocol developers ! Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Tags: oauth View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia - [Bookmarks for Jul 07](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jul-07.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. Web Worker Daily » Archive Design Patterns for Coworking « "Recently a member of the global coworking mailing list, Joseph Holsten) recently created what’s essentially a recipe book of ‘how to’ guides for those seeking to setup a coworking community, coworking… - [Bookmarks for Jul 06](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jul-06.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. Feed Store :: Fail Whale "We love Twitter. We even love it when it’s down. Twitter gives you lots of opportunities to love it. "This shirt will ship mid-July. We’ll notify you via Twitter, unless it’s down. Yeah… just come back here and check. "…and if you’re l… - [Bookmarks for Jul 04](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jul-04.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. Twitter: User Co-Creating or User Co-Opting? - O'Reilly Radar "Whatever is actually going on at Twitter, allowing your user community to engage in a conversation regarding your product development can be incredibly valuable, and ignoring their behavior can lead… - [Bookmarks for Jul 03](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jul-03.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. "This'll be the day that whales fly." LOL -- a song for the Fail Whale! Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Tags: failwhale, comic, humor The Fail Whale Fan Club FailWhale.com is the groupie | PR | Fan Club for one of coolest whales we know... you know... the handsome whale and… - [Feature request: OAuth in WordPress](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/feature-request-oauth-in-wordpress.md) - In the past couple days, there's been a bit of a dust-up about some changes coming to WordPress in 2.6 -- namely disabling ATOM and XML-RPC APIs by default. The argument is that this will make WordPress more secure out of the box -- but the question is at what cost? And, is there a better solution… - [Bookmarks for Jul 01](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jul-01.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. Highlight Author Comments Highlight Author Comments automatically displays comments made by a post’s author in a distinctive style with no need to edit your template files, etc. All you do is provide a snippet of CSS styling to be applied to author posts. Ratin… - [Bookmarks for Jun 30](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/bookmarks-for-jun-30.md) - A daily collection of linky goodness. oohEmbed.com oohEmbed is an oEmbed compatible provider of HTML embed codes for various web sites. Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Tags: oembed, proxy Yahoo! Design Stencil Kit v1.0 (Yahoo! Developer Network blog) "Yahoo! this week released a design stencil kit to help design… - [The Social Web TV pilot episode](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-social-web-tv-pilot-episode.md) - http://www.viddler.com/player/2cf46be8/ My buddies John McCrea, Joseph Smarr have started up a show called The Social Web and have released the pilot episode, featuring David Recordon on the hubbub between Google and Facebook following last week's Supernova Conference. As they point out, things are… - [Announcing Emailtoid: mapping email addresses to OpenIDs](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/announcing-emailtoid-mapping-email-addresses-to-openids.md) - The other night at Beer and Blog in Portland, fellow Vidooper Michael T Richardson announced and launched a new service that I'm both excited and a little apprehensive about. The service is called Emailtoid, and while I prefer to pronounce is "email-toyed", others might pronounce it "email two eye-… - [A conversation about social network interop and activity stream relevance](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/a-conversation-about-social-network-interop-and-activity-stream-relevance.md) - [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/1155577 w=500&h=377] Brian Oberkirch captured some video today of a conversation between him, David Recordon and myself at GSP East about social network interop, among other things. Hot on the heals on my last post, this conversation is rather timely! 💬 Comments from th… - [Adding richness to activity streams](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/adding-richness-to-activity-streams.md) - This is a post I've wanted to do for awhile but simply haven't gotten around to it. Following my panel with Dave Recordon (Six Apart), Dave Morin (Facebook), Adam Nash (LinkedIn), Kevin Chou (Watercooler, Inc) and Sean Ammirati (ReadWriteWeb) on Social Networks and the NEED for FEEDs, it only seems… - [Thoughts on dynamic privacy](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/thoughts-on-dynamic-privacy.md) - A highly touted aspect of Facebook Connect is the notion of "dynamic privacy": As a user moves around the open Web, their privacy settings will follow, ensuring that users' information and privacy rules are always up-to-date. For example, if a user changes their profile picture, or removes a friend… - [Inventing contact schemas for fun and profit! (Ugh)](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/inventing-contact-schemas-for-fun-and-profit-ugh.md) - And then there were three. Today, Yahoo! announced the public availability of their own Address Book API. Though Plaxo and LinkedIn have been using this API behind the scenes for a short while, today marks the first time the API is available for anyone who registers for an App ID to make use of the… - [Parsing the "open" in Facebook's "fbOpen" platform](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/parsing-the-open-in-facebooks-fbopen-platform.md) - Yesterday, as expected, Facebook revealed the code behind their F8 platform, a little over a year after its launch, offering it under the Common Public Attribution License. I can't help but notice the glaring addition of Section 15: Network Use and Exhibits A and B to the CPAL license. But I'll div… - [Facebook, the USSR, communism, and train tracks](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/facebook-the-ussr-communism-and-train-tracks.md) - Low hills closed in on either side as the train eventually crawled on to high, tabletop grasslands creased with snow. Birds flew at window level. I could see lakes of an unreal cobalt blue to the north. The train pulled into a sprawling rail yard: the Kazakh side of the Kazakhstan-China border. Wor… - [Machine tagging relationships](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/machine-tagging-relationships.md) - I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about how to represent relationships in portable contact lists. Many of my concerns stem from two basic problems: 1. Relationships in one context don't necessarily translate directly into new contexts. When we talk about making relationships "portable", we ca… - [The battle for the future of the social web](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-battle-for-the-future-of-the-social-web.md) - When I was younger, I used to bring over my Super Nintendo games to my friends' houses and we'd play for hours... that is, if they had an SNES console. If, for some reason, my friend had a Sega system, my games were useless and we had to play something like Sewer Shark. Inevitably less fun was had.… - [The OpenID mobile experience, part II](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-openid-mobile-experience-part-ii.md) - In January, I wrote about the "OpenID mobile experience" lamenting that it sucked and asking for positive examples of identity providers who got it right. Well, I didn't get a whole lot of examples, but Ian McKellar (Songbird) did get inspired to hack something together called Twauth, which serves… - [I'm joining Vidoop to work on DiSo full time](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/im-joining-vidoop-to-work-on-diso-full-time.md) - Well, Twitter, along with Marshall and his post on ReadWriteWeb, beat me to it, but I'm pretty excited to announce that, yes, I am joining Vidoop, along with Will Norris, to work full time on the DiSo (distributed social) Project. For quite some time I've wanted to get the chance to get back to foc… - [Thoughts on DataPortability](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/thoughts-on-dataportability.md) - Introduction Over the last several days I've started and abandoned four drafts of this post. Usually it doesn't take me this long to write out my thoughts, or to go through so many different approaches, but I wanted to express myself as clearly as I could given the amount and overlapping texture of… - [When location is everywhere](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/when-location-is-everywhere.md) - What if you could take location as a given in the design of web applications and services? By that I mean, what if — when someone who has never used your service before shows up, signs up (ideally with an OpenID!) — and it's both trivial and desirable for her to provide you with access to some aspe… - [OAuth Discovery 1.0 Draft 2 released with support from Ma.gnolia, Fire Eagle and Satisfaction](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/oauth-discovery-10-draft-2-released-with-support-from-magnolia-fire-eagle-and-satisfaction.md) - Eran just announced the second draft of OAuth Discovery, the first implementation of the XRDS-Simple specification that I mentioned here just over a week ago. What's significant about this announcement, as Eran points out, is that the new draft is already implemented and deployed by FireEagle (a Ya… - [Ma.gnolia moves to OpenID-only sign ups](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/magnolia-moves-to-openid-only-sign-ups.md) - Ma.gnolia's not the first to move to OpenID-only signups, but perhaps one of the first to remove the ability to create new Ma.gnolia-only accounts in favor of the alternative. If you previously created a Ma.gnolia account you can still sign in with your email address or username and password, but n… - [XRDS-Simple Draft 1 released](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/xrds-simple-draft-1-released.md) - The little guys keep building the future of the web in little steps. Well, okay, I shouldn't use such hubris, but I'm pretty proud of our little squad of do-gooders, developing quality technology that I think IS advancing the state of the web, and doing so without any budget whatsoever, and without… - [Citizen Garden #6 on site-specific browsers featuring Jon Crosby and Todd Ditchendorf](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/citizen-garden-6-on-site-specific-browsers-featuring-jon-crosby-and-todd-ditchendorf.md) - I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before, but Larry Halff (Ma.gnolia) and I have been recording a series of podcasts with a bunch of interesting folks on topics ranging from data portability to data interop and authorization patterns to API-driven web services. The intended audience of this po… - [Relationships are complicated](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/relationships-are-complicated.md) - I've noticed a few interesting responses to my post on simplifying XFN. While my intended audiences were primarily fellow microformat enthusiasts and "lower case semantic web" types, there seems to be a larger conversation underway that I'd missed — one that both Adam "Everyware" Greenfield and Tim… - [Portable contact lists and the case against XFN](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/portable-contact-lists-and-the-case-against-xfn.md) - I suppose it might come as a surprise that I've decided to question, if not reject, XFN as the format for expressing portable friends or contact lists. I'm not throwing out the baby in the bathwater here, but rather focusing on the problem that needs to be solved and choosing to redouble my efforts… - [An update to my my OpenID Shitlist, Hitlist and Wishlist](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/an-update-to-my-my-openid-shitlist-hitlist-and-wishlist.md) - Back in December, I posted my OpenID Shitlist, Hitlist and Wishlist. I listed 7 companies on my shitlist, 14 on hitlist and 12 on my wishlist. Given that it's been all of two months but we've made some solid progress, I thought I'd go ahead and give a quick update on recent developments. First, the… - [Picking the open source candidate](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/picking-the-open-source-candidate.md) - My buddy whurley is at it again, but this time considering which candidate(s) is the most compatible or supportive of open source — in other words, among the many options, which could be considered the "open source candidate"? Just as I voted for Obama yesterday, I voted for Obama today. I'm not su… - [After Social Graph FOO Camp — and a challenge for the Data Portability Group](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/after-social-graph-foo-camp-and-a-challenge-for-the-data-portability-group.md) - This past weekend I attended a topic-specific FOO Camp called Social Graph FOO Camp (otherwise known as SGFOO) organized by Scott Kveton and David Recordon (or ray-chor-dohn according to Larry). Scott's write up is pretty complete, but I wanted to call out one specific outcome that I think is worth… - [The Existential DiSo Interview](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-existential-diso-interview.md) - The Existential DiSo Interview from Chris Messina on Vimeo. Here's what I asked myself: how are you? we're going to talk about diso today? is that right? what is diso? you say it's a social network, so how would it work with wordpress? how is this different from myspace or facebook? so who's involv… - [Transitions](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/transitions.md) - It's always felt a little weird for me to get personal on this blog. In the rare occasions when I do, I suppose it's never quite as big a deal as I make it up to be in my head, and on top of that, you'd think that with the kind of public life I maintain with the work I do and my advocacy against ol… - [The OpenID mobile experience](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-openid-mobile-experience.md) - Two days ago, Ma.gnolia launched their mobile version, and it's pretty awesome (disclosure: Ma.gnolia is a former client and current friend/partner of Citizen Agency). In the course of development, Larry asked me what he thought he should do about adding OpenID sign-in to the mobile version. He was… - [It's high time we moved to URL-based identifiers](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/its-high-time-we-moved-to-url-based-identifiers.md) - Ugh, I had promised not to read TechMeme anymore, and I've actually kept to my promise since then... until today. And as soon as I finish this post, I'm back on the wagon, but for now, it's useful to point to the ongoing Scoble debacle for context and for backstory. In a nutshell, Robert Scoble has… - [The problem with open source design](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/the-problem-with-open-source-design.md) - I've probably said it before, and will say it again, and I'm also sure that I'm not the first, or the last to make this point, but I have yet to see an example of an open source design process that has worked. Indeed, I'd go so far as to wager that "open source design" is an oxymoron. Design is far… - [Kicking off 2008 with a themeword](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/kicking-off-2008-with-a-themeword.md) - At Lifecamp on Monday, (incidentally held at Tantek's Port Zero) we had a session where the small group of us brainstormed what Erica Douglass called "theme words" that might help us focus our goals for 2008. Erica's theme word for 2008 is "connect". Mine is "conduct" (in all its meanings). Alex Hi… - [Fluid, Prism, Mozpad and site-specific browsers](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/fluid-prism-mozpad-and-site-specific-browsers.md) - Matt Gertner of AllPeers wrote a post the other day titled, "Wither Mozpad?" In it he poses a question about the enduring viability of Mozpad, an initiative begat in May to bring together independent Mozilla Platform Application Developers, to fill the vacuum left by Mozilla's Firefox-centric devel… ## Optional - [RSS Feed](https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/rss/) - [Sitemap](https://www.chrismessina.me/sitemap.xml) - [Full content of pages and posts](https://www.chrismessina.me/llms-full.txt)