OpenSocial, by Google’s David Glazer

(I’ve shifted back to blogging, as some folks were overwhelmed with my tweet updates, this makes more sense rather than a blow-by-blow tweet report)

What is OpenSocial
First, if you don’t know what OpenSocial is read this: Explaining OpenSocial to your Executives. Forrester will be publishing a report on OpenSocial in the near future (I interviewed David and Kevin Marks last night), I’m on point for that, stay tuned.

Web Strategy Summary
You, a web decision maker are probally considering creating widgets to reach distributed communities. The opportunity to build an application once and let it run everywhere is still underway. I recommend you continue to watch this space, put a key developer or agnecy on point to start creating your applications in compliance, but plan on customizing your apps per the unique demographic for each social network.

David of Glazer of Google’s OpenSocial team shares at Graphing Social. He suggests that novice should read Nicholas Carr’s book “the Big Switch” on social computing, there are parallels between open grid electricity and open web.

Why OpenSocial?
It’s fast, easy, open, and everywhere. Move the accidental objects out of the way so we can interact better. People care about other people, not a new idea but the social context, people are the killer app.

This isn’t new
Email, Newspapers, Bookstores, FTP, social used to be called ‘c-o-l-l-a-b-o-r-a-t’

Some problems left to solve
-Fragmented authentication: OpenID is not yet sufficient but a step in the right direction
-Fragmented identity: how many times do we need to add friends?
-Fragmented app development: how many times do we have to build an app?

Step 1: OpenSocial
“If you can build a web app, you can make it social, and reach more than 200 million users”

1) Invent it: Come up with a great idea (app) that you want to do with your friends.

2) Build it: Standard web app (HTML and Javascript), New JS APIs (who i am, who i know

3) I missed the third one

Types of Social Networking
-Classic: Myspace, hi5, bebo, facebook
-Business networking: LinkedIn
-Enterprise Software: Salesforce, oracle:
-Communities (like white Label): Like corporate communities, nings, etc.

OpenSource
A great idea but you’ve got to work at it.
Need to get the following right: Clear mission, Open License, Engaged Community, Real-world use.

Other Resources
Google’s OpenSocial Site
Shindig Incubator

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 11:00 am and is filed under OpenSocial, Technology, Widget Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.