Give OpenSocial a chance
So here we are, the busiest shopping day of the year and yet talking about OpenSocial is still on our radars.
I was asked by Kaliya Hamlin to make it to the next IIW (Internet Identity Workshop in Mountain View Dec 3-5 ) as the Google and OpenSocial folks will be out in full force - bringing their message to the Identity Wonks. These are exactly the folks who predicted the type of identity espionage and thievery that Facebook is displaying with “Beacon” - and they’re pretty dam sure Google is the devil as well.
So Kaliya thought my own, unique sense of “cutting through the bullshit” might be useful at the IIW - but unfortunately I can’t be there.) I’ll be off actually building user-centric identity systems - rather than talking about them.) But Kaliya knows we’ll be supporting OpenSocial, as we did OpenID last year and oAuth soon - as well. And we support any attempt at gaurading user’s rights and making sure they can control their data.
So what everyone is hoping to hear from Google is why they are NOT the devils and what they have to say about Facebook’s “Beacon”.
Thinking about this - I’ve recently stumbled upon Alex Iskold’s Thanksgiving post where he declares “that OpenSocial really matters” and folks like Doc Searls and Dave Winer disagreed (in a comment) are saying “that OpenSocial is just a marketing ploy - or ALSO a marketing ploy”.
Its too bad that Google had to be so petty and try and one-up Facebook’s Ads announcements with the timing of the OpenSocial announcements - but “Hey! Ads are their family jewels - so why not attack Facebook’s Achilles Heel AND one-up them? This is busienss afterall?”
But the issue of whether OpenSocial is open ENOUGH clearly occludes the issue of “can we trust Google” or “is OpenSocial an OPEN platform that is NOT controlled by Google.” That will be the issues that need to be answered - at the IIW.
I for one hope that they make a good showing, as Patrick Chanezon will be on my panel the next week in Paris - and I’ll be asking him many of the same questions.
“Why should we trust Google?”
“What about all the missing features and functions from OpenSocial?”
“When will Google implement OpenSocial is Google products OTHER than Orkut and iGoogle?”
“What about bringing social to software? (eg. other than SNS and dashboards?) What about OpenSocial in the Google Search page rank? Or in Maps, GMail or Reader? This is what I’m excited about!
So we can be pessimistic and declare Google the enemy - or we can give them a chance - just as we’re hoping that Mr. Zuckerberg will “do the right thang!“
