It looks like the world of open platforms is becoming a marketplace unto itself. Facebook has opened up the Pandora’s Box - and if MySpace isnt gonna copy them, well then you can sure as hell bet that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft will - in addition to LinkedIn hi5, Bebo and Tagged.

What will be interesting is to see how each platform interprets ‘open’ differently. This is exactly what Joseph Smarr and myself will be discussing at our panel on ‘open data’ Wednesday (Oct. 17th) at Web 2.0.

But I gotta say how excited I am to hear of these ‘openings up’ and what this means for our world - moving forward. An inter-connected meshed world is the ONLY way to go, I’ve known that all along and I’m just happy that folks are accepting that inevitability.

Welcome dudes and dudesses! This is not officially starting to get fun!

Caroline McCarthy (relation to Megan?) gets it right - that these other platforms would LOVE some of that Facebook juice. And yet MySpace still sits there…..

The original CNET article goes on to to say Facebook developers will be developing for any and ALL platforms they can find - which was exactly the point I brought up - when I interrupted that iLike guy at their party.

Facebook has no exclusivity on these folks and it’s only a matter of time until the crossing of boundaries becomes normal and something end-users expect.

So now Facebook’s subtle TOS becomes a really important issue. “Will Facebook change theirs or not?” (NOTE: The current Facebook TOS (Terms of Service) assumes that THEY own all their end-users data sand puts restrictions on what can be done with THEIR data - which of course is NOT their data - but their end-user’s data.)

Facebook’s scam to get ideas from developers has been exposed, so now lets create a barometer watch on what else Facebook does - right or wrong - as the Pandora’s Box repercussions resonate throughout the universe.

Meanwhile as details come out on LinkedIn’s ‘openness’ it looks like it ain’t that open - at all. And all Bebo has done so far, is cut a deal with Microsoft for usage of MSN Messenger as a conduit - which really ain’t that open - either.

Oh man oh man - is THIS gonna be fun to watch!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 9:32 am and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.