OpenSocial is a public specification that defines a component hosting environment (container) and a set of common application programming interfaces (APIs) for web-based applications. Initially it was designed for social network applications and was developed by Google along with MySpace and a number of other social networks. In more recent times it has become adopted as a general use runtime environment for allowing untrusted and partially trusted components from third parties to run in an existing web application. The OpenSocial Foundation has also moved to integrate or support numerous other open web technologies. This includes Oauth and OAuth 2.0, Activity Streams, and portable contacts, among others.

It was released November 1, 2007.^[1] Applications implementing the OpenSocial APIs will be interoperable with any social network system that supports them, including features on sites such as Hi5.com, 99factors.com, MySpace,^[2] orkut, Netlog,^[3] Sonico.com,^[4] Friendster,^[5] Ning, and Yahoo!.

Structure[link]

Based on HTML and JavaScript, as well as the Google Gadgets framework, OpenSocial includes multiple APIs for social software applications to access data and core functions on participating social networks.^[6] Each API addresses a different aspect:.^[7] It also includes APIs for contacting arbitrary third party services on the web using a proxy system and OAuth for security.

In version 0.9 OpenSocial added support for a tag-based language.^[8] This language is referred to as OSML and allows tag-based access to data from the OpenSocial APIs that previously required an asynchronous client side request. It also defined a rich tag template system and adopted an expression language loosely based on the Java Expression Language.

Starting in version 2.0 OpenSocial adopted support for Activity Streams format ^[8]

History[link]

Development[link]

OpenSocial was rumored to be part of a larger social networking initiative by Google code-named "Maka-Maka",^[16] which is defined as meaning "intimate friend with whom one is on terms of receiving and giving freely" in Hawaiian.^[17]

Implementation[link]

For launch, partners^[18] committed to supporting the OpenSocial APIs included the social network companies Bebo, Engage.com,^[19] Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, NetModular,^[20] mixi, MySpace, Ning, orkut, Plaxo, QuePasa, phpFox, Six Apart, Freebar.com;^[21] as well as business-oriented networking companies LinkedIn, Tianji, Salesforce.com, Viadeo,^[22] Oracle, and XING.^[1] Plaxo and Ning released OpenSocial support within the first day of the launch, with Plaxo adding OpenSocial support to its Pulse feature,^[23] and Ning adding basic OpenSocial support ahead of its previously announced release^[24] of full support in late 2007 to early 2008.^[25] Developers who had already built applications implementing the APIs upon launch include Flixster, FotoFlexer, iLike, Newsgator,^[26] RockYou,^[27] Slide, Theikos,^[28] and VirtualTourist.^[1] Initial OpenSocial support experienced vulnerabilities in security, with a self-described amateur developer demonstrating exploits of the RockYou gadget on Plaxo, and of Ning social networks using the iLike gadget.^[29] On Mar 25, 2008 Yahoo! also announced it has joined the initiative.^[30] Next to that, an extension of the OpenSocial specification is used in Responsive Open Learning Environments (ROLE) to support the assembling of widgets and resources into PLEs while providing responsive functionality.

An open source project, Shindig, was launched in December, 2007, to provide a reference implementation of the OpenSocial standards. It has the support of Google, Ning, and other companies developing OpenSocial-related software. The Myspace OpenSocial parser was released as project Negroni in January, 2011 and provides a C# based implementation of OpenSocial.

Criticism of Initial Release[link]

Opened to much fanfare in news coverage, OpenSocial did not work well in the beginning; it only ran on Google-owned Orkut, and only with a limited number of gadgets, returning errors for other gadgets. Other networks were still looking into implementing the framework.

As reported by TechCrunch on November 5, 2007, OpenSocial was also quickly cracked. The total time to crack the OpenSocial-based iLike on Ning was just 20 minutes, according to TechCrunch, with the attacker being able to add and remove songs on a user's playlist, and to look into information on their friends.^[31]

On December 6, TechCrunch followed up with a report by MediaPops founder Russ Whitman, who said "While we were initially very excited, we have learned the hard way just how limited the release truly is." Russ added that "core functionality components" are missing and that "write once, distribute broadly" was not accurate.^[32]

Background[link]

OpenSocial is commonly described as a more open cross-platform alternative to the Facebook Platform, a proprietary service of the popular social network service Facebook.^[33] After launching Facebook Platform in late May 2007,^[34] as well as acquiring startup web desktop company Parakey in mid-July 2007,^[35] the fast-growing Facebook has been widely reported as a challenger to Google^[36] in establishing and leveraging a ubiquitous web operating system.^[37][38] Compared to Facebook, which is ranked second by page views worldwide for the month of September 2007, Google's social network orkut is ranked sixth for the same month, with more than half its members living in Brazil.^[36]

Reports on competition between the two companies increased with Facebook scheduling an announcement of an online advertising initiative (named Facebook Ads) the day after Google's social networking announcement was originally scheduled^[39] (November 6, 2007^[40]). The initiative includes ad serving and targeting programs (named Facebook Social Ads and Facebook Insights, respectively)^[40] in competition with Google's market-leading AdSense and AdWords programs.^[41][42]

Using OpenSocket,^[43] the user can run OpenSocial gadgets within Facebook.^[44]

While OpenSocial has seen a decline in popularity among social networks, it is seeing wider adoption in enterprise companies in recent years as a plugable extension mechanism for web products. Several companies such as IBM^[45] , Atlassian^[46] , and Jive Software^[47] have adopted OpenSocial in their applications and platforms.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site of the OpenSocial foundation
• OpenSocial resources at Google
• OpenSocial-Foundation-Proposal
• OpenSocial-Candidates as nominated for Directors
• Open Social App Directory
• Shindig Shindig is an open source implementation of the OpenSocial specification and gadgets specification.

Kevin Marks
Born	(1966-09-13) September 13, 1966 (age 45) Harrow, UK
Nationality	UK
Occupation	Programmer, blogger
Employer	BT
Website
epeus.blogspot.com/

Kevin Marks (left) and JP Rangaswami at Defrag 2010, Colorado USA

Kevin Marks is author of the weblog Epeus Epigone. He was Vice President of Web Services at BT.^[1] He became Principal Engineer for Technorati after working for both Apple and the BBC. At the TechCrunch event Realtime Stream Crunchup he announced that he would be joining BT to work together with JP Rangaswami. In May 2011 he began working at Salesforce.com. He is one of the founders of Microformats.

At the first BloggerCon, Marks discussed the power curve as it applies to weblogs:

The net changes the power law of the media curve. If you look at relative popularity on the web, using something like Technorati, you get a power curve that goes all the way down gradually, to the bottom where you see pages that got just a single click. If you look at popularity in the "real" world — best-selling books, or top music — the power curve drops like a stone from a very high level. That's because in order to get a book published, or a piece of music recorded, you have to convince somebody that you're going to sell a million copies. You end up in a zero-sum game, where people pour enormous resources into being the number one, because number two is only half as good. The promise of the net is that the power of all those little links can outweigh the power of the top ten.

In 2003, Marks was an early experimenter with and contributor to the technologies that became popular under the names podcasting and iPodder in 2004.

At the October 4, 2003, BloggerCon, Marks demonstrated (real audio file) a program that downloaded RSS-enclosure audio files and transferred them to Apple's iTunes music player, which could then synchronize them onto an iPod. In his weblog post from the conference that day, Marks mentioned discussing the program with Adam Curry, who also blogged about their chat the next day.

Kevin Marks is on the Advisory Council of the Open Rights Group, a UK-based Digital Rights campaigning organisation.

Kevin previously worked for Google as a Developer Advocate on OpenSocial.

Awards[link]

• 2006 Best Blog Guide - Technorati - Web 2.0 Awards
• 2006 Best of Show - Technorati - SXSW Awards
• 2006 Best Technical Achievement - Technorati - SXSW Awards
• 2002 Primetime Emmy Engineering Award -Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for Final Cut Pro
• 1998 Best Paper presented at MacHack 'Personality & Code'
• 1997 Japanese Wildlife Television Festival Multimedia Award - Wide World of Animals
• 1997 DTi Information Society Creative Award - Matter Factory
• 1996 Wildscreen Multimedia Award - Wide World of Animals
• 1995 MacUser Award - Best Reference title - 3D Atlas
• 1995 EMMA award for Best Information and Reference - 3D Atlas
• 1995 EMMA award for Best Overall CD-ROM title - 3D Atlas
• 1995 BIMA Gold award for Best Reference title - 3D Atlas
• 1994 Prix Möbius International finalist - 3D Atlas
• 1993 BIMA European Gold award - Erd Sicht

References[link]

• Adam Curry accepts Marks' involvement in the genesis of podcasting CNet
• on Apple's iPod CBS MarketWatch
• on Apple's iTV Slate
• on the European Directive, TV Without Frontiers BBC Radio Five Live Pods & Blogs
• on internet radio The Guardian
• on video codecs CNet
• on blog statistics CNet
• on tagging CNet
• Marks' move to GoogleTechCrunch
• Marks' leaving GoogleTechCrunch
• Overview of OpenSocial and Focus on Activity Streams ReadWriteTalk Interview

1. ^ http://twitter.com/kevinmarks/status/2878132835