Like everyone else, I’ve recently heard buzz about PeopleAggregator. Though on the surface it’s simply a standards-based social networking service, upon further investigation it’s much more.

First, it’s embracing the URL-based lightweight ID management technologies I’ve posted about previously, which is another step in the direction of de facto standardization. Second, it’s building tools and standards for decentralized hosting and portability of all sorts of user information, not just identity and social network. The presentation materials on the site now specifically call out file and media storage as additional use cases.

What’s important is that PeopleAggregator isn’t just offering to host these services; that’s been done before. PeopleAggregator is trying to catalyze a distributed, decentralized, open network/grid/mesh by which identity, social network, and data can be created, manipulated, and exchanged in both human- and machine-consumable forms.

I can’t wait to learn more. Perhaps I won’t have to build the Grand Unified Storage Architecture all by myself after all…