Social networking technology is key to the Transparent Federal Budget system, as it provides the framework for identity and reputation that will keep the community together.

However, it's important to keep the barriers for community participation low. Many of us have accounts on one or more major social networks. What's more, these accounts may already have some identity and reputation information included in the form of our friends lists or testimonials. Wouldn't it be great if these accounts could be used for participation in the Transparent Federal Budget community, without having to create yet another account from scratch?

This is the goal of our social networking open standards initiative. We intend to create an open standard for social networks to communicate, allowing users from any participating social network to use their account to participate in the Transparent Federal Budget community.

We are hosting a professionally-facilitated workshop in August, entitled We Are All Actors, with leaders from the social networking technical standards attending. One of our major goals is to achieve widespread consensus to participate in this open standards project.