On Fri, 2010-10-08 at 15:42 +0100, Luke Benstead wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm sort of thread hijacking a little here (apologies for that), but
> this is actually close to something I've been meaning to bring up here
> for a while.
>
> On my phone, when I set it up for the first time I was asked if I want
> to set up certain accounts (e.g. flickr, Facebook, Twitter etc.) and
> by doing so I unlocked features (e.g. downloading contact pictures,
> uploading pictures to flickr etc.).
>
> What with Ubuntu becoming "social" I'm wondering if we should be doing
> something similar, a sort of online account manager which manages the
> accounts across the desktop.
>
> Here's my thinking, imagine the first time you login to Ubuntu you are
> provided with an account setup wizard that allows you to register
> accounts for different purposes. For example:
>
> * Imgur, Flickr, ImageShack, Picasa TwitPic, FB* (image hosting
> services)
> * Twitter, Facebook*, Identica, Google Buzz (social networking)
> * Ubuntu One, Dropbox (file hosting services)
> * Google Talk, MSN, Jabber (IM services)
> * Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo (email services)
>
> Adding each of these would add them to the appropriate application
> (e.g Gwibber, Evolution, Empathy) but would also unlock features (e.g.
> Right clicking and image in Nautilus might have a "Share on Flickr"
> option).
>
> I think some kind of global account system, with an API would allow us
> to code some really cool stuff into the desktop. So, as a concrete
> example, Shotwell might be able to query for a list of available image
> hosting services that the user has accounts for, and provide an
> "Upload to..." option.
>
> I'm also thinking that the account manager itself could use a
> extension system for the accounts, so installing packages like
> account-manager-flickr would add it to the account manager... or
> something like that.
>
> Anyway, sorry to take this slightly OT, just thought I'd throw this
> out there,
>
> Luke.