Archive for category Open Social
Mark Zuckerberg Says Facebook Connect Is the Future
Posted by Dan Hall in Open Social, social media on July 28, 2008
Read an interesting article where the CEO of Facebook discusses their take on the future of the social web ( a direct competitor to Google’s OpenSocial platform). OpenSocial has had some challenges out of the gate including it’s first application being quickly hacked in just 45 minutes.
Mark Zuckerberg discussed the evolution of the social network through Connect and, presumably, similar services such as Google Friend Connect and MySpace Data Availability.The goal of all these initiatives is to make the Web more open and social. Check out Zuckerberg’s response:
“Social applications are going to start [to] decentralize a bit more. Instead of just having a few big social networks like we’ve had over the last five or six years that are basically just these large communities that have a few applications that they’ve built themselves inside, what we’re going to see is that they are going to split up into more, different types of social applications. “
Without a doubt social advertising and network portability will be a certainity of the web in the near future. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top. From a personal standpoint the social networking sites most appealing to me have adopted the OpenSocial platform. Facebook does have the Monolithic Microsoft on their side, but unfortunately I am not sure if that is help or hinderance nowadays.
Dan Hall
Seattle’s Social Human Resources Manager
What is OpenSocial All About?
Posted by Dan Hall in Open Social, social media on July 27, 2008
Joseph Smarr from Plaxo does a great job describing out how it all works in one presentation:
You can view the slides used in the presentation here.
The future of the web is social, there will be no differentiation between the web and the social web. Facebook is working on a social web application platform as well in direct competition to Google’s OpenSocial, more on this tomorrow.
Dan Hall
Seattle’s Social Human Resources Manager
Adding Value to Social Media Sites and Your Network
Posted by Dan Hall in Adding Value, Open Social, social media on March 31, 2008
Why are current Social Network sites’ accessibility controlled a simple switch – an on and off switch of permissibility if you will? The major players in the field MySpace, Facebook, even LinkedIn – all have a common theme in whether or not you deem this person a connection / friend or not. If you do they have access to you – your information, pictures, posts in some cases or in others just communicating or networking with you (adding value to the network).
Is that old acquaintance from high school that you haven’t talked to in 5 years on par with your boss at work? Should they be given the same accessibility into your social network, your social media life as it is.
What about business partners who are at odds with each other, do you want them to see each other as mutual connections? What about the functionality of sharing more personal photos – such as your wedding pictures to your close friends but not to your co-workers?
Why do we use professional social networking sites for your professional connections but Facebook for your more peronably friend and why do they not overlap at all – it is your life and network isn’t it?
There should be an overarching social networking platform that address these issues. The Economist had a good article addressing the closed social media worlds based on proprietary standards and their historical precedents of AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy (is history doomed to repeat itself?).
Social media websites should be as easy to setup as blogs and they continuing will exist if there is enough of a demographic who is passionate about the space to add enough value to warrant its existence. Social Media is a digital world shaping movement. The monetary prize in online ads which have fueled many of the big buyouts may be debatable in terms of future viability also discussed in the Economist, but the utility of Social Media is undeniable.
It is our networks, our lives that add value to Social Media not the proprietary systems that give us the platforms to connect. Sooner or later open social and digital portability will gain enough movement to achieve this and Social Media and the Internet will never be seperate again.