» The Data Will Be Portable Shortly, Please Be Patient. May. 12, 2008 | by Alisa Leonard We’re not at social computing utopia yet, but the latest announcements from MySpace, Facebook and Google on their various data portability initiatives are exciting.
After months of being members of the Data Portability Workgroup, these announcements (although made separately) appear to be the first of what I hope to be many: On the premise that “users are in control of their data,” MySpace was first out of the gate with their Data Availability announcement. Inside this opt-in framework users will be able to dynamically share their data with third-party sites, data and content including: (1) Publicly-available basic profile information, (2) MySpace photos, (3) MySpaceTV videos, and (4) friend networks.
Launch partners for this initiative include Ebay, Twitter, Yahoo! Facebook quickly countered with their own version of a data portability initiative, Facebook Connect. As a site owner, I don’t need to do a massive redesign, or even know code. 1. 2. 3. Amazon Opens Affiliate Access to MP3, Unbox, OpenSocial and RSS. Update: Since the publication of this post, Amazon's PR people have contacted me a number of times to request that we remove this coverage based on a draft press release they sent us last week.
I said I would not remove the post or all references to Open Social (their Plan B) but that I would post a clarifying statement if they wanted to send me one. The following is what they sent. "Since the publication of this post, an Amazon spokesperson contacted me to clarify that no announcement was made in regards to support for Open Social. The Amazon spokesperson went on to say that Social network developers have been using the Amazon Associates Web Service to merchandise Amazon products (and earn Associates commissions) for some time. She indicated that Amazon would continue to provide developers with tools that allow them to choose the platform that makes the most sense for them regardless of the Social networking site they are building on.
And now, the original post in question... Hyped New Platforms: Explaining the Difference Between One and t. Platforms here, platforms there - everyone's launching a platform it seems.
Today's newest platforms, a content storage platform from Box.net and a content publishing platform from social network Bebo, are just the latest. Facebook, OpenSocial, Android - who can tell them all apart? What is a platform? It's a technical welcome mat that allows developers from outside of a company tie their software to the software offering the platform. How's that for an explanation? Comparing Five Recently Announced Platforms Each of the platforms above has a flavor and in order to clarify all the talk about platforms, I decided to make a chart. OpenSocial The Google-lead but open-standards based initiative could be huge, or it could just be for cross-site widget publishing. Developers will build apps that can be published on any OpenSocial supporting site, like MySpace, LinkedIn or Bebo.
Facebook The original platform, at least as far as this wave in concerned. Android Box.net Bebo MySpace Conclusion.