... If all OpenSocial does is allow developers to port their applications more easily from one social network to another, that's a big win for the developer, as they get to shop their application to users of every participating social network. But it provides little incremental value to the user, the real target. We don't want to have the same application on multiple social networks. We want applications that can use data from multiple social networks.OpenSocial needs to be more than just a middleware for application development. The web is the platform, not Facebook or MySpace or anything else, and what's really needed are applications that share and leverage all of the information we've put out there. There is a ton redundant data on the web, and it's not limited to just social networks. For example, both Amazon.com and Netflix have recommendation systems. If I want accurate results from both, I have to rate the same movies twice on both sites, and keep both lists up to date. And if I want to list my favorite movies in my Facebook profile? Yep, I have to enter them in again. I'm barely inclined to do this activity once, let alone three times, and that's just for movies! If I want to add books, music, video games, etc. then the dance continues ad nauseam.
One solution is to create a common user database, where users can grant participating applications access to whatever parts of their profile they want. This would allow applications to share data, and it provides users with a single account for all of the sites they visit. There are a million pros, cons, and technical challenges to this idea, but everything else seems to fall short.
