Whats it all For ?
NEPOT is a way to present associations between yourself and other people and websites, in a nice, friendly, uniform way. You can list all your friends, communities you belong to and just cool sites you have found.

Once you are a part of the network, you can easily navigate around the system and see what cool people and things other people are in to. Project Goals

• Store all of the users data on the users own website and not have to worry about some central user agreement.
• Link the users together in navigable form
• Keep the hosting requirements for members to a minimum, ie. static file content
• Not rely on a single core services site, by making as much as possible happen in the browser, and anything else be distributable and/or multi vendor.
• To use existing standards where possible, eg RSS for the main data file

How does that differ from orkut or FOAF ?
Orkut. Relies on a single server, if it goes down then the whole system is off line, that single system also has all of the information about you and can gather more about your usage as they please. With NEPOT You own all your own data, and can remove or alter it as you like, and your not dependant on any single system to use it. There is a central 'original' site, but the software is GPL and anyone can setup their own version.

FOAF. From all that we have read and seen of the foaf system it doesnt form a coherant, navigable, network of friends, which was one of our primary goals. the standards documents also recommend the use of personal email addresses as user id's, which is obviously a field day for spammers. Out system uses only your website address, and that of your associates, which gives no real useful information away to spammers or other data miners.

How Does it Work?
NEPOT uses a form of RSS file. All you need to do is Make your data file and include it on your website. Then place a logo on your page to indicate that you are part of the network, and thats it. All of your personal data is held and controlled by you. Theres nothing to sign up to, and no dodgy usage agreements to accept.

How Do I Get Started

• First. Create yourself a RSS File
• Save that file as nepot.rss in the Top directory of your website
• Make sure that all URLs you give for other sites is also the top directory, as that is where it will look for their nepot.rss file.
• Put a logo on your website so that others can see you are a member and can view your friendship network. (Must be in the same directory as the nepot.rss file.
  
  

  <!-- Nepotism project -->
  <a href="http://discordia.org.uk/nepot/viewme.php">
  <img src="http://discordia.org.uk/nepot/logo.jpg" ALT="Nepot" TITLE="View My Friends" BORDER=0>
  </a>
  <!-- end of nepot -->
  

• Now go and persuade all your friends to link up too!

What does the green background behind certain people mean ?
When you view a persons friend list, it checks the other persons list too. If they link back to this person, ie a two-way link, then that person is highlighted in green.

It all looks a bit crude and amateur, whats going on?
At the moment we are still very much in the experimental proof-of-concept stage, where we are trying out new ideas and seeing where we can take this project next. As time progresses and features become firmer more time will be spent on tidying up and making it all look nice.

We welcome contributions from anyone with the time, experience or ideas to help out.