Gary Helmling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sun, 4 Nov 2007 22:12:39 >Isn't that what the data APIs are all about? Making it possible for >one server backend to query a user's information from another. >Combined with OAuth (if that's adopted as the authentication >framework), you have a secure (hopefully) way to network a member's >information across all the sites/networks they may be part of.
This has occurred to me as well. The People Data and Activities Data APIs look somewhat like generic versions of Twitter's API and FOAF. As we've seen with Twitter a simple API matched with a site with traction has generated a huge number of Apps and Mashups. I don't think FOAF has ever shown it's real potential and I still maintain that FOAF is Write only data, but there is a huge number of FOAF triples out there waiting to be used. Now translate that into fairly common support for Google's standards and we could have an explosion of apps that use it. Not least, Google might start to do something useful with the structured data it finds instead of just treating it as not very human-readable HTML. This is all completely separate from gadget building. And it's something that potential Container builders can do right now. Even if Orkut doesn't support it yet, there's enough spec in the docs for us all to implement the Data APIs now. And there's a wealth of prior art to draw on, especially from the FOAF community. The other issue here about Google ownership and T&Cs becomes moot if Orkut is just one (and a minor one) of the Container sites. Which is why I'm really hoping that Hi5, Plaxo and others provide a sandbox for gadget developers really soon. It wouldn't surprise me if one of them has a more complete, more usable sandbox before Orkut does. One thing in this whole view bothers me a bit as a Container developer. I'm going to have to support:- - Authsub as well as OpenID, oAuth - People Data API as well as foaf, vcard - Atom as well as RSS This looks like more embrace, extend and control to me. -- Julian Bond E&MSN: julian_bond at voidstar.com M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173 Webmaster: http://www.ecademy.com/ T: +44 (0)192 0412 433 Personal WebLog: http://www.voidstar.com/ skype:julian.bond?chat *** Just Say No To DRM *** --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "OpenSocial Container Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/opensocial-container?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
