Comments on: The business of social networks and what Google’s open social does for it http://blog.wohlrapp.com/2007/11/the-business-of-social-networks-and-what-googles-open-social-does-for-it/ Adapting Businesses to Social Evolution and Technical Innovation leveraging the "Two Economy" Mon, 14 Nov 2011 08:36:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Open Parenthesis http://blog.wohlrapp.com/2007/11/the-business-of-social-networks-and-what-googles-open-social-does-for-it/comment-page-1/#comment-16367 Open Parenthesis Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:56:01 +0000 http://blog.wohlrapp.com/archives/193#comment-16367 <strong>Open Social is not Social Network Portability...</strong> I’ve been struggling since OpenSocial was announced last week to figure out how to put into words what exactly I felt was missing. I feel like I’m seeing lots of people reacting to the announcement describing what they want OpenSocial to be... Open Social is not Social Network Portability…

I’ve been struggling since OpenSocial was announced last week to figure out how to put into words what exactly I felt was missing. I feel like I’m seeing lots of people reacting to the announcement describing what they want OpenSocial to be…

]]> By: John Eckman http://blog.wohlrapp.com/2007/11/the-business-of-social-networks-and-what-googles-open-social-does-for-it/comment-page-1/#comment-16365 John Eckman Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:14:40 +0000 http://blog.wohlrapp.com/archives/193#comment-16365 (I may need to lengthen this response into a blog post of my own) What I haven't yet seen is any explanation of how Open Social solves the problem you've identified above. What I get from reading the Open Social API and viewing the announced demos is that an application / widget built using the Open Social API can be used on any compliant container. So, I can make a LOLCat widget, and then allow people to use that widget on Ning, Hi5, Orkut, and any other Open Social compliant container. However, each of those instances remains a separate network of people - my identity on Ning is not linked to my identity on Orkut - I have the same widget available now in each network, but the networks themselves remain separate. In other words, I see Open Social making live much easier for widget makers - which will allow each competing social network to offer more widgets to its users - but I don't see how this answers the proliferating network problem - doesn't it actually make it worse? (I may need to lengthen this response into a blog post of my own)

What I haven’t yet seen is any explanation of how Open Social solves the problem you’ve identified above.

What I get from reading the Open Social API and viewing the announced demos is that an application / widget built using the Open Social API can be used on any compliant container.

So, I can make a LOLCat widget, and then allow people to use that widget on Ning, Hi5, Orkut, and any other Open Social compliant container.

However, each of those instances remains a separate network of people – my identity on Ning is not linked to my identity on Orkut – I have the same widget available now in each network, but the networks themselves remain separate.

In other words, I see Open Social making live much easier for widget makers – which will allow each competing social network to offer more widgets to its users – but I don’t see how this answers the proliferating network problem – doesn’t it actually make it worse?

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