Best Practices - Providers vs Services

From The Socknet

The Socknet implies a new division of labor not generally seen in other social networks. It divides websites into Socknet Service Websites and Socknet Profile Providers.

Do I Want To Create A Service or A Provider?

Initially, to decide whether the website you're creating is a service or a provider, you should ask yourself what it is you want to do.

A Provider holds a user's information and allows him to edit it. It's in charge of holding his list of friends, list of services, and messages. The objective of a Provider is to provide innovative ways that a user can easily manage this data.

Most websites do not want to be Providers. The truth is, it can be kind of boring.

If you want to provide an interesting service, but your main objective is not to manage friends (i.e., managing friends is just a minor feature of your service), then you want to create a Socknet Service Website. As a Service, you can access the user's friends, and even suggest new ones, but you do not have the task of holding onto those friends.

I Want To Be a Provider With Extra Features

Sometimes you really think that your idea will work best as a Provider with extra features. Consider these advantages to choosing to act as a Service.

As a Service you can:

• Attract users from any provider. When a user does not have to recreate a profile on your website, he's happier and less likely to leave.
• Access users' friends and use that information creatively.
• Send messages with your Service's name on them. That's brand power.
• Access users' other services via whatever protocols they provide. If you're a photo printer and the user lists his photo websites, then you can access them easily and get the user to the information he wants quicker.

If you still want to be a Provider, you should consider breaking your idea up into two: the Provider part that controls users' friends, messages, and services, and the Service part that provides the innovative new feature. Then have your users enrolled in your Service automatically.