Lars Hinrichs

Lars Hinrichs on 01.11.2007 at 10:10h CET

Back in April, we announced plans for creating a XING API. What we couldn’t have
foreseen then was how important APIs would become, or how quickly they would do
so. The difficulties inherent in proprietary APIs—both from our perspective
(coordinating with European privacy laws, rights management) and from a
development standpoint (how many APIs can one developer learn?)—were
substantial. To be on the safe side, we started with a Partner API and launched
with Zoominfo.

The rest of the world was on to APIs as well: In September we met the Google evangelist
Patrick Chanezon, and he
invited us to participate in the OpenSocial initative. Right away, we
recognized how powerful an open standard could be, and decided to support
OpenSocial.

We at XING believe strongly in open standards. It’s a two-way street, a matter of
working together rather than against each other. After all, if you look back in
time, open systems have always led to greater success, from Linux to Apache to
the Web itself. We’re happy to support developers who add value and boost
productivity with their applications, and by adopting an open standard on XING,
we’re allowing thousands of programmers to code for our platform, all using
known web-standards of HTML & Javascript. Our members themselves can choose
which applications they adopt—who better? The freedom of such an approach is
infinitely superior to a walled garden approach.

Marc Andreesen, founder of netscape and now running the company Ning  put it perfectly by explaining the differences
between the two approaches area:

In a nutshell, Open Social is an open web API that can be supported by two kinds of developers:

  • “Containers” — social networking systems like Ning, Orkut,  Hi5, Lnkedin, Plaxo, and Friendster, and…
  • “Apps” — applications that want to be embedded within containers — for example, the kinds of applications built by iLike, Flixster, Rockyou, and Slide.

This is the exact same concept as the Facebook platform, with two huge differences:

  • With the Facebook platform, only Facebook itself can be a “container” — “apps” can only run within Facebook itself.  In contrast, with Open Social, any social network can be an Open Social container and allow Open Social apps to run within it.
  • With the Facebook platform, app developers build to Facebook-proprietary languages and APIs such as FBML (Facebook Markup Language) and FQL (Facebook Query Language) — those languages and APIs don’t work anywhere other than Facebook — and then the apps can only run within Facebook.  In contrast, with Open Social, app developers can build to standard HTML and Javascript, and their apps can then run in any Open Social container.

So we are very proud to be participating in this
week’s launch of Open Social. The platform is the web itself, we don’t need
another laywer in-between.


Trackback from http://pixelsebi.com/2008-12-02/xing-opensocial-developer-pitch-2008/

[...] – the most popular business network in Germany and other european countries – announced about one year ago to become an OpenSocial container. This year in september they showed first [...]

XING OpenSocial Developer Pitch 2008Read more in

Recorded on 02.12.2008 at 09:57h CET

15
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Cem Basman on 01.11.2007 at 12:13h CET

Perfect. This will end a lot of speculations about the possiblities and abilities to integrate social networks, appilications, distinct features and functions as well as different data sources. “Simple” as that.

True integration is when I can connect to somebody in a different social network without leaving my own world. If I can see, reach and communicate this person from my own social network. That would be fun. And useful.

I call this “Seamless Social Networking”.

Sprechblase on 01.11.2007 at 12:43h CET

Von OpenSocial zum Seamless SocialNetworking

Gestern kündingte Google OpenSocial an, eine neue Programmierschnittstelle für Soziale Netzwerke. Damit soll sich übergreifend für jede Soziale Netzwerkplattform Facebook-ähnliche Anwendungen schreiben lassen. Coole Sache.
Heute erklärt Lars Hinr…

Norman on 01.11.2007 at 16:32h CET

Commercials on Xing?

Dimension 2k on 01.11.2007 at 20:46h CET

Vernetzte Netze – The OpenSocial API

Google hat mit OpenSocial eine API fr Soziale Netzwerke angekndigt, die auf den ersten Blick wie die eierlegende Woll-Milch-Sau-API fr Soziale Netzwerke anmutet.
Auch auf den zweiten Blick weckt die Ankndigung von Google – und n…

viralmythen on 02.11.2007 at 00:29h CET

Was ist Googles Open Social und wozu brauche ich das?

Sehr schn zu beobachten, wie Google mit einer Neuentwicklung an die ffentlichkeit geht, und die Diskussionen darber, ob Google nun die Welt regieren wird oder nicht, brechen los. Nur, was genau Googles Open Social sein soll, haben w…

FFD on 02.11.2007 at 15:41h CET

When will Xing’s implementation be ready?

Anonymous on 03.11.2007 at 09:18h CET

Spannende Woche durch myonid, yasni Google

Diese Woche war wirklich spannend. Nexum steigt bei myON-ID ein, yasni die Personensuchmaschine geht online und Google startet einen Dienst der eine einheitliche Schnittstelle für viele Social Networks ermöglicht.
myon-id, yasni und chiloo
Wer macht …

Sebastian Mauch on 03.11.2007 at 10:51h CET

Very Good move by XING, just as it is a very good move by Google. However: Do you think it is necessary to use this opportunity to bash on a competitor? Especially since this competitor might choose to join OpenSocial later on when it really proves to be valuable…

WebZweiPunktNull.de on 03.11.2007 at 17:10h CET

Smells like Teen Spirit: Google verbindet mit OpenSocial Social Network Sites

Schwitzehndchen bei Web 2.0 Experten, das bestimmende Thema diese Woche war und ist der anrollende Launch der neuen Web 2.0 Standart API Schnittstelle fr Social Networks von Google: OpenSocial. Was ist das, wie funktioniert das und wem n…

Marc on 03.11.2007 at 23:36h CET

There is a typo in this article: “…like Ning, Orkut, Hi5, Linkedin,…”, not Lnkedin
;-)

six groups blog on 05.11.2007 at 11:14h CET

Open Social und die große Sehnsucht nach Social Network Portability

Open Social ist seit letzter Woche in aller Munde. Google und seine Partner der ersten Stunde (u.a. Xing und MySpace) haben das Thema geschickt platziert und einen enormen Buzz erzeugt. Dass das Thema auch auf dem Barcamp Berlin eingeschlagen war, spü…

Kalyxo on 10.11.2007 at 15:20h CET

Another typo: “we don’t need another laywer in-between.” It should read “layer”.

OpenSource Blog on 26.09.2008 at 20:55h CET

Open Social – erster Überblick, Videos, Links

Aktuell schauen wir uns gerade Open Social genauer an um zu sehen, ob wir eine Integration ins papaya CMS implementieren wollen.
In Kürze gibt es dazu hier noch ein Update mit weiteren Informationen (Argumente pro/contra, technische Bedenken/Probleme …

Florius Jan Vardink Huiskamp on 21.12.2008 at 13:28h CET

I Feel Very Xing..!!

Merci..

FJVH

Jan Vardink Huiskamp on 28.12.2008 at 18:50h CET

This is an Very interesting site with very important connexxions…..world wide….

The world is an better and more easy place for people with relevant interest…..

via Xing….

so…feel Xing and come into the global network..!!

Jan Vardink Huiskamp

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