Social networking is a rapidly growing web phenomenon with more than 100 million participants worldwide.
Thirty percent social networkers have a Facebook account.
Within a few months of opening up of Facebook platform to application developers, there was an avalanche of applications developed to lure Facebook members in installing them.
And the Facebook members did at a blistering pace.
To counter the rising dominance of Facebook in the social networking world, Google, MySapce, and a dozen other social networking sites and a few software and service providers like Oracle and Salesforce have banded together to unveil OpenSocial.
OpenSocial is an alliance, a platform, and a common set of programming interfaces (APIs) for developing applications for the OpenSocial platform.
For developers, it is writing a social application using the technology that they are already familiar with like HTML, CSS, and Javascript and then deploying the application across multiple sites that have implemented the OpenSocial programming interfaces.
There is no need to develop separate applications for MySapce, Orkut, or Ning.
Unless Facebook joins the alliance, developers still have to develop the same application for the Facebook platform in addition to the OpenSocial version.
A Facebook only platform with its proprietary development language (Facebook Markup and Facebook Query language) for the increasing social networking properties is bad for the web because it establishes a monopolistic control over members' data, their online social graphs, development language, and deployment containers.
OpenSocial by design breaks the monopolistic control of social networking data and application development technology by a single site.
It uses web standards like HTML, CSS, and Javascript for development language.
Member sites open their members' data and related social graphs to other sites and application developers use a develop once and deploy everywhere model.
OpenSocial frees users from using only one site.
Now their favorite applications can run in multiple sites.
Users will not stay tied to one website.
They will join multiple sites and the convenience of installing an application once and using the same application in multiple sites is very appealing.
It also increases networking efficiency by bringing together users' fragmented networks scattered across many sites.
It is an empowering technology for users.
OpenSocial does not create a single social networking site.
It brings diverse sites serving different group of people together into an open platform for interoperability.
Web site owners can develop applications for OpenSocial platform for branding purposes and driving traffic to their sites.
OpenSocial provides a unique opportunity for website owners to penetrate the vast social networking world and reach its members.
However, developing interesting applications that leverage their sites' services and target members who are genuinely interested in those services are the key to success.
OpenSocial also opens up a new frontier for people who use the web for dubious activities.
There soon will be thousands of spam applications, theft of social network graphs and members data, unauthorized access to and manipulation of members' profiles, etc.
The verdict is still out.
However, it is clear that OpenSocial will push the web into a level where isolated social networking sites will be able to communicate using common applications.
Users will be able to move between networks seamlessly and run their favorite applications from any network.
Developers will be free from developing multiple versions of the same applications for different social network properties.
Website owners will be able to target their services to social network participants more efficiently than they are able to do it now.
Thirty percent social networkers have a Facebook account.
Within a few months of opening up of Facebook platform to application developers, there was an avalanche of applications developed to lure Facebook members in installing them.
And the Facebook members did at a blistering pace.
To counter the rising dominance of Facebook in the social networking world, Google, MySapce, and a dozen other social networking sites and a few software and service providers like Oracle and Salesforce have banded together to unveil OpenSocial.
OpenSocial is an alliance, a platform, and a common set of programming interfaces (APIs) for developing applications for the OpenSocial platform.
For developers, it is writing a social application using the technology that they are already familiar with like HTML, CSS, and Javascript and then deploying the application across multiple sites that have implemented the OpenSocial programming interfaces.
There is no need to develop separate applications for MySapce, Orkut, or Ning.
Unless Facebook joins the alliance, developers still have to develop the same application for the Facebook platform in addition to the OpenSocial version.
A Facebook only platform with its proprietary development language (Facebook Markup and Facebook Query language) for the increasing social networking properties is bad for the web because it establishes a monopolistic control over members' data, their online social graphs, development language, and deployment containers.
OpenSocial by design breaks the monopolistic control of social networking data and application development technology by a single site.
It uses web standards like HTML, CSS, and Javascript for development language.
Member sites open their members' data and related social graphs to other sites and application developers use a develop once and deploy everywhere model.
OpenSocial frees users from using only one site.
Now their favorite applications can run in multiple sites.
Users will not stay tied to one website.
They will join multiple sites and the convenience of installing an application once and using the same application in multiple sites is very appealing.
It also increases networking efficiency by bringing together users' fragmented networks scattered across many sites.
It is an empowering technology for users.
OpenSocial does not create a single social networking site.
It brings diverse sites serving different group of people together into an open platform for interoperability.
Web site owners can develop applications for OpenSocial platform for branding purposes and driving traffic to their sites.
OpenSocial provides a unique opportunity for website owners to penetrate the vast social networking world and reach its members.
However, developing interesting applications that leverage their sites' services and target members who are genuinely interested in those services are the key to success.
OpenSocial also opens up a new frontier for people who use the web for dubious activities.
There soon will be thousands of spam applications, theft of social network graphs and members data, unauthorized access to and manipulation of members' profiles, etc.
The verdict is still out.
However, it is clear that OpenSocial will push the web into a level where isolated social networking sites will be able to communicate using common applications.
Users will be able to move between networks seamlessly and run their favorite applications from any network.
Developers will be free from developing multiple versions of the same applications for different social network properties.
Website owners will be able to target their services to social network participants more efficiently than they are able to do it now.
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