Global Visions

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[Via Webware]

It’s still not up to 1.0, but Google on Wednesday announced completion of version 0.8 of OpenSocial, a standard for building social applications on the Web. 

One notable difference with OpenSocial 0.8 is the addition of the RESTful API. This addition lets a wider variety of software beside just Web-based widgets running in JavaScript interact with the servers running social applications. For example, it would permit a program running on Windows or on a mobile phone, but not in a Web browser, tap into a social application.

OpenSocial began at Google, but the company won allies for it. Web heavyweights including MySpace.com and Yahoo joined Google to manage the technology through the OpenSocial Foundation. OpenSocial is one theme getting heavy emphasis at the first Google I/O conference in San Francisco on Wednesday and Thursday.

The technology consists of a number of standardized Web programming interfaces called APIs; with OpenSocial, a developer can more easily write a single application that runs on several different Web sites.

Programmers are working on building OpenSocial 0.8 support into Apache Shindig, an open-source project that can endow servers with OpenSocial support, Dan Peterson, a Google product manager, said in a blog posting. “Expect to see containers supporting it in the coming weeks and months,” he said.

Other changes beside the RESTful API are documented in the OpenSocial 0.8 release notes. 

Why the Pistons won: They executed the hamster wheel at light speed. Whether it was Rip (25 points) on virtually every possession down the floor in crunch time, or Chauncey (19 points, 7 assists) with 20 seconds on the clock, Detroit created open jumpers by running their guards through walls of screens. It allowed Rip to get into the lanes of the Celtics’ defense for quick jumpers or to spot open teammates. With about 2:20 to play, ‘Sheed (13 points, 10 rebounds) knocked down an open jumper off a dish from Rip which epitomized the Pistons’ team offensive scheme. Six of Detroit’s last eight buckets were assisted. They had an answer for everything the Celtics threw at them.

Why the Celtics lost: It’s easy to blame Ray Allen (9-16 FG, 25 points) for missing two crucial shots down the stretch - he was blocked on a three, and then missed an eight-foot floater, which would have cut the lead to four with under a minute left. It’d be even easier to blame him for not being able to stick Hamilton. But ultimately, the Celtics were never able to break through Detroit’s four-point cushion back-and-forth through the fourth quarter because they didn’t control the glass in the fourth quarter. Though the Pistons were outrebounded 39-31 on the game, they got the edge on Boston in the fourth 10-9. Second chance opportunities kill when you’re trying to make a comeback.

Social. That seems to be the new buzzword in the technology community, with seemingly every tech-related company jumping on the bandwagon. Primarily, the “social” revolution has taken place on the internet, but such a phenomenon manifests itself other places as well. Microsoft’s portable media player, the Zune, carried a tagline of “Welcome to the social”. Belkin’s NView router promised to make the home network. And the iPod touch pushed the limit by adding near-anywhere interaction. But what exactly does it all mean? And why is this Web 2.0 wave so quickly sweeping the nation, particularly the internet scene? The answer lies in people’s hearts. Leading analysts believe that as people become more disconnected from each other, they still seek a way to interact with each other. Such a paradise resides in the area. All over the place, “social networks” have popped up, promising users “unparalleled connection” to their friends; but so far only 2 of these have proven to be true contenders – Facebook and Myspace. Even more popular are social mini-apps, such as Twitter and Last.fm. These actually have legitimate usefulness – Twitter in particular. As the social web revolution continues to evolve slowly into Web 3.0, the user experience will continue to improve. And that is part of the draw – the interaction, combined with rich features can almost appear better than face to face interaction. This is where we, the users are led astray. By disconnecting ourselves, we reduce the amount of sincere interaction with a given person, causing possibly frayed relationships. What users should do is use web apps as a backup for social interaction, not as a primary method. If all do this, the web community will be much more tightly knit.