XdbE - Frequently Asked Questions

Here we collected the most frequent and the most basic questions related to XdbE Project. If you have more in-depth query or want to take part in the discussion, please visit our community at Google Groups. Some more structured and speicialised description of Xdbe Project can also be found in our Wiki. The most current news and other materials helping in understanding ideas, solutons and reasoning behind the XdbE Project can also be found in our Blog.

Can I run XdbE DS from my server at home?

XdbE participation is open for all and there is no strict limitation on who may run XdbE DS. However, there are basic system requirements concerning processing power, disk space and bandwidth allocated for your XdbE DS. To participate you will need to allocate resources equal or above the required. You should also make sure that your server uptime is as close to 100% as possible. If your server and/or your Internet connection is below the required it may slow down XdbE network and therefore such servers are dropped out from the network. Also, if you are not able to comply with XdbE data protection policy certain types of data will not be available to you.

I am running XdbE DS. Can I run statistical analysis program over the data and subsequently offer the results for sale to my clients?

The most simple answer is YES. You may do whatever you see fit with the data. XdbE does not own the data in question and in fact nobody does! This data is in public domain anyway. XdbE only provides structured access to this data and it is not our policy to limit such an access in any way. Besides you earned this by running your own DS and sharing bandwidth, resources and data with other XdbE members.

Can I install DS which only collects data but doesn't provide them to end-users?

NO. It would not be fair. XdbE is about sharing and providing equal and unrestricted access to Global Social Graph for all.

What kind of online services XdbE is designed for? Is it only for social networks or other types of sites like blogs or forums can participate as well?

XdbE is primarily designed to assist so-called OCS (Online Community Services) or in other words all websites where users can establish friendship relationships with each other. Web sites of this type will obviously benefit most from functionality offered by XdbE but the system is open for all other types of services where users can register and publish their content including but not limited to such types as free standing blogs, forums and other similar services. Such services may benefit at the level of registering their so-called AKA data as well as accessing XdbE.

What data XdbE contains?

XdbE contains only those data sufficient to represent a complete Social Graph (User Circle), with addition of AGL data, namely:
  1. User ID of users of corresponding OCS
  2. Friendship relationships between users
  3. User Age, Gender, Location (AGL)
  4. Also known as (AKA) data establishing correspondence between user accounts belonging to the same user at different Online Community Services (OCS)

Are you violating user privacy by collecting and distributing personal information?

Firstly we only have access to publicly available information published on websites and thus already being placed explicitly in Public Domain. We also respect the rights of users to control what type of relationships they wish to make public for which all necessary provisions had been made in XdbE System Architecture and XdbE Data Transfer procedure. Secondly, we deliberately limited the amount of personal data associated with each user by just three items: Age, Gender, Location. By design AGL does not contain sufficient amount of data to constitute Personally Identifiable Information. You can read more on AGL concept and associated privacy issues on our Features page and in our blog.

How is it possible for Online Community Services to show specific data from other services (for example media data) if XdbE does not provide media, content and private data for users but only provides relationships, AKA and AGL?

XdbE presents the backbone, the framework of the Web 2.0 in a form of Global Social Graph which in turn allows to establish both AKA equivalences for a user at different OCS as well as his or her friends at those communities. All specific data for that user could be requested directly from corresponding communities using either Open Social API or SGN or any other appropriate method. Once again, XdbE is not about aggregating user-generated content but instead it contains nodes and edges of the Global Social Graph.

Why do we need XdbE if all data can be retrieved by Open Social API?

  1. Open Social API does not provide AKA data for users between all services within one single request. XdbE does.
  2. Open Social API requests services one by one to collect social graph information like user relationships. This is not suitable for real time interaction. XdbE returns this data by single request.

Why do we need Open Social API if we work with XdbE network?

You need Open Social API to request specific (media, content and private) data concerning users from individual Online Community Services.

Which server in XdbE network accepts new data from Online Comminity Services?

XdbE is built on principles of horizintal or peer-to-peer architecture. There is no kind of centralised or dedicated server to accept new data whatsoever. Every DS and RS in the network can do this.

Which server in XdbE network provides data to end-users?

XdbE is built on principles of horizintal or peer-to-peer architecture. There is no kind of centralised or dedicated server to provide data for end-users Data Clients (DC) whatsoever. Every DS and RS in the network can do this.

Is there a kind of central dedicated server which controls the whole XdbE network and controls data replication?

No. XdbE network is a peer-to-peer network. There is no centralisation in any form. The special algorithm was developed to replicate data on all servers in the network and every server is responsible to be in-sync with all others.

Which database you use for DS?

Currently this we developed XdbE using MySQL but we are not limiting the system to this particular database engine. Potentially we allow using any other DB engine as long as it does not hinder the overall performance of XdbE Network and any particular DS in XdbE network can use DB engine convenient for the purpose. We have plans to adapt and test our system with other DB engines and provide corresponding configuration files and operating instructions.

Does XdbE network have real time architecture? In other words how fast new data are propagated amongst all servers (DS)?

In strict terms XdbE network is not truly real time but in terms of Internet services it is as close to real time as any service delivered over a best effort network can be.
Let us consider some examples:
  1. If you request DS which has accepted some new data this can be considered a real time because you can retrieve the data immediately.
  2. If you request any other DS then the time of propagation depends on this server network bandwidth and overall network traffic. In most cases it is less than a few seconds.
  3. If you request DS which was offline for a time (due to technical issues for example) then it might reply that it is out of sync and you should request another server and this might cause additional delay.
Generally under normal circumstances delay between an event taking place at a given OCS and its transaction record spreading to all DS within XdbE Network should not exceed several seconds.

How large is amount of service traffic circulating within XdbE network while the network is idle (when there are no external requests and data provisions and all servers are synced)?

This parameter  is configurable and is aimed to keep all servers synced at all times and it has linear dependence on a number of DS in XdbE network. In any case the amount of traffic is fairly insignificant (about few kilobytes per minute).

I still have a question or concern about XdbE Project. What should I do?

Please, contact us using our Contact page and we'll do our best to respond to your query promptly. Alternatively if you have a Twitter account you may contact us on Twitter. Individual team members can be contacted using addresses provided at our Team page.