The push for open social data availability strikes gold…kind of
July 24, 2008 – 10:18 am by Kyle Welter
This Tuesday, Myspace released initiatives with Flixster and Eventful which will allow Myspace users to register and sign into the sites through their Myspace ID. This movement is the first data availability move that we see Myspace taking towards open-social networking, which is the idea of vertically aligning multiple social platforms into one, congruent stream.
The idea of data availability on Flixster and Eventful lies in the fact that you can now register and create an account within these two sites simply by logging into your myspace and importing your profile details into the new social network. Once the account has been created, the user can then view which of their Myspace friends are active on the new site and easily connect with them. On Eventful, not only can users import their profile through their Myspace account, they can receive event alerts for when their favorite bands (as listed on Myspace) are coming into town.
All of the data is shared through data availability supporting sites as well as Myspace. As a user updates their interests and favorite music, all of their sites that support data availability are therefore, automatically updated in real time. Along with content, privacy settings will follow the user therefore updating removed friends and privacy settings. While Myspace has committed to supporting data availability, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has been hesitant through stating that Facebook is examining the players in the field and will make the decision that most benefits their users and developers.
Myspace’s jump on the gun marks a small, yet stinging victory over Facebook in the race towards open social ideology. Google has been making great ground with their Open Social coding which allows developers to incorporate applications seamlessly across multiple different platforms and their Friend Connect platform which is an attempt at being a user’s sole social network.
