OpenSocial To Expand Meta-Markets?
Google’s new open web API initative OpenSocial is currently resonating everywhere on the web. OpenSocial enables developers to create social web applications that can run on any social network platform that has the OpenSocial interface standards. It is released by Google and a wide range of partners including Orkut, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Salesforce.com, Oracle, Viadeo, iLike, Flixster, RockYou, and Slide. The list is growing, you can read more about Open Social’s business implications elsewhere including O’Reilly Radar, Techcrunch, Techmeme, New York Times, and Marc Andressen’s blog and screencast.
It is confirmed that MySpace and Six Apart are also joining the club. It is not known that if Facebook will join the club or not.
OpenSocial clearly hits the topics we have been exploring in Meta-Markets. On the one hand OpenSocial will enable people’s personal information (profile, friends, and activities) flow on a network of service providers and third party applications. On the ther hand the value of our socially networked creative products will become more ambigious. Our intellectual property that is generated by our labor, through our social relationships, and our living (activities) is not measurable by us but only by the service providers, who charge advertisers based on detailed stats. As these “networks of social networks” grow, complexity rises, and the value we generate becomes just more ambiguous for us.
With Meta-Markets we approach this complexity by providing an actionable space—24/7 live stock market—to experiment with the value systems of the social web. We are looking forward to try the new OpenSocial API when it goes online, and see how we can use it in Meta-Markets.
November 1st, 2007 at 2:19 pm
This is a huge step towards creating a standard for online social networks. It suggests a network over social networks, where people can be connected and be informed of each other’s activities across services. Meaning, we will be spending more time on “being social”, keeping the activity live for the service. Services will profit from this activity through advertising, ad networks are already being establishing in parallel. So, how about quantifying how much value a user brings to a service, since the content is the user now? What does the user get for generating all these advertising revenues?
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:30 pm
[…] Techcrunch reports MySpace joining the crowd […]
December 9th, 2007 at 9:46 am
That is the 64 Million Dollar question! Or if we use the Google Adsense model based off the number of clickthroughs per thousand page impression this post has received: That is the .02 question! If compensation for “social work” starts to be utilized will it actually relate to the amount of value the users input contributes to the environment, or will it just be a token gesture.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:29 am
YouTube recently announced that they will pay their users based on their videos’ views, that is the AdSense advertising revenue associated with your videos on the site. Is this Partner Program promising? I think it is a good step to give something back for people’s intellectual labor, but lets take a closer look at it.
The content (photos, videos, bookmarks etc.) we upload to social services is just a part of the total work we do on these services. What else we do? We comment, vote, forward, mix, tag, rewrite, refine, fix, recommend, we create a public opinion and public interest. This type of work makes the spectacle. This is the spectacle that is digitally measurable only by the service providers themselves.
I feel like YouTube Partner Program is just hiding this second type of work that we do on these social services.
December 20th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Battling Social Network Fatigue … By Going Open - A recent O’Reilly Radar post by David Recordon on the social media landscape post OpenSocial announcement. Lots of good links to emerging aggregator/lifestreaming services.
I think this thread is becoming the “water cooler” of Meta-Markets!
December 21st, 2007 at 2:51 pm
These days anyone can start a social web service it seems, such a profitable market! All you do is capture/reflect a real social network and provide tools to manage the connections.
Here is another conference on graphing social patterns
http://graphingsocial.com/
December 27th, 2007 at 7:03 am
This is an interesting remark. Right now, I would say most of comments, votes, tags etc. is based on reaction on content - meaning, the intention is not to glorify or mortify the content but to react to it on an individual scale.
If the value of each participation is tangible, meaning that if each comment, tag etc is intentionally trying to promote content, would it train users to be immune to it and eventually kill its purpose? This reminds me of Ebert&Roeper, the two guys who give thumbs-up to every single horrible flick.
December 30th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Immune to what? participation? It is not an illness. We paticipate / communicate by nature, that’s why majority of the people don’t care about their social interaction being a sort of work. If you write to my wall I am happy to write to your wall etc.
December 31st, 2007 at 4:28 am
Yes it is only natural to participate. Apparently the point did not get across. Let me try again.
If participants participate with the intention of generating value (as opposed to reacting to content), would the participation be still natural?
A lot of ‘participation’ here.
December 31st, 2007 at 3:03 pm
It may not be different than attending to an office party, if this is what you mean with natural.
Well I think most of the time we are aware that we generate value in our communications. The problem starts when this value is exploited.
January 2nd, 2008 at 2:39 am
This is exactly my point. And I think, this exploitation can happen both ways (facilitator/participant) as long as there is heightened awareness of value.
Not sure about the office party.