What's "Open Social" All About

If you haven't heard about Google's Open Social yet - you will shortly, it's launching tomorrow. Mark Andreesen's post today does a great job of summarizing what Open Social is all about. His social network company, Ning, is one of the participating "containers" so he's a biased but I think his post benefits from his "insider" perspective. I'm interested to see how Facebook reacts. Will Open Social strengthen or weaken your Friendverse?

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In a nutshell, Open Social is an open web API that can be supported by two kinds of developers:

• "Containers" -- social networking systems like Ning, Orkut, LinkedIn, Hi5, and Friendster, and...
• "Apps" -- applications that want to be embedded within containers -- for example, the kinds of applications built by iLike, Flixster, Rockyou, and Slide.
  
  Source - BLOG.PMARCA.COM

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Dare Obasango: OpenSocial: Google Proposes Widget & RESTful API Standards for Social Networking Sites "This is a brilliant move. - Dare Obasango"

Giga Om: OpenSocial, Google’s Open Answer to Facebook "OpenSocial attacks Facebook where it is the weakest (and the strongest): its quintessential closed nature. - Om Malik"

Anil Dash: Blackbird, Rainman, Facebook and the Watery Web "Think of the web, of the Internet itself, as water. Proprietary platforms based on the web are ice cubes. They can, for a time, suspend themselves above the web at large. But over time, they only ever melt into the water. And maybe they make it better when they do. - Anil Dash"

TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/tag/google/ 

palmit.commentary post: Friendverse Weakens

Updated 11/01/07

Mark Andreesen is back with another Open Social post today and this one includes an excellent screencast summarzing Open Social and what it's going to do for social networks by providing a real-world example. Additionally, Google announced today that MySpace and Six Apart are joing the growing Open Social network.

Screencast:

http://networkcreators.ning.com/video/video/show?id=492224%3AVideo%3A93279

Happy Halloween Eve

The JibJab crew, famous for their political satires, is still at it. This jab at pumpkins, pun [def.] intended, had me rolling - again, pun intended.

Photojojo

Drug-Resistant Staph

Drug-Resistant Staph is getting a lot of attention these days. The recent death of a 17-year-old high school student in VA pushed the nasty bacteria back into the spotlight. MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is now an enemy of the state, like a Bin Laden, and on the minds of most anxious parents and primetime news show producers. The New York Times put together a good MRSA overview yesterday - Drug-Resistant Staph: What You Need to Know.

Now would be a good time to invest in companies that deal in anti-bacterial hand wash products. Now would be a bad time to be a Pediatrician or a school custodian. Wash your hands, don't touch the door handle in public bathrooms, and don't touch other people ; ) Most don't wash their hands in the bathroom.

Web 2.0 Patterns

PodTech.net produced an interesting interview with James Governor (RedMonk) and Duane Nickull (Adobe) at Adobe Max '07 in Barcelona where they talk about Web 2.0 design patterns and their upcoming book on the subject. Their discussion about design patterns and how they're used in the very dynamic Web 2.0 ecosystem is interesting and worth watching.

Twelve Essential Photographic Rules

PopPhoto.com, the on-line home of Popular Photography & Imaging Magazine, sports Twelve Essential Photograhic Rules - a collection of photography rules-of-thumb that will increase your chances of capturing the moment the way you see it.

From Sunny 16 to Moony 11, 8, and 5.6, these facts, formulas, and photographic rules can get you out of a jam and help you get good shots when nothing else will.

 

Pumpkins For Sale

Pumpkins For Sale, originally uploaded by Cale Bruckner.

Fall is in full swing here in Oregon and the greater Pacific Northwest. The pumpkin patch is one of my favorite places to explore with my camera in hand. The pumpkins contrast with the other fall colors to create lots of fantastic opportunities to capture the light. I took this picture at a popular patch in Pleasant Hill Oregon - Northern Lights Christmas Tree Farm. Enjoy Fall - capture it with your camera!