Open social, reference guide
Open social is a google initive, designed to offer a common API for social network based applications while allowing developers to easily write applications for any social network participating in the Open Social initiative.
Many sites, one API
Common APIs mean you have less to learn to build for multiple websites. OpenSocial is currently being developed by Google in conjunction with members of the web community. The ultimate goal is for any social website to be able to implement the APIs and host 3rd party social applications. There are many websites implementing OpenSocial, including Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.
More online applications and websites are joining the Open Social initiative, but so far facebook.com has not joined yet.
The potential an open standard like Open social has on growing the online application market is enormous.
Below are some references, get started guides, etc.
