OpenSocial Not Open for Service Providers

Yet.

Google released their OpenSocial API. It allows social-network aware widgets to run on any site that implements the standard. Unfortunately, it’s got one major problem.

They didn’t release the Service Provider documentation. Not so Open. If you happened to sign a partnership with Google you may already be releasing your implementation. Everyone else is left out in the cold. In particular, check out the postings on the OpenSocial Container group (Container is another word for Service Provider). Practically every post is some Service Provider asking to be let in. And there isn’t a single response to any of them.

Here’s what CrowdVine is going to do about it. By hook or by crook, we’re going to get our hands on that spec. Then we’re going to implement it. Then we’re going to document our effort. Then we’re going to open source our implementation. Google’s launch partners seem to have the goal of replacing Facebook. Our goal is to replace Google’s launch partners.

Here’s the vision. Give every ma and pa website the tools to support this standard so they’ll have access to the same widget set as every other provider. That removes the one barrier small websites have when they try to compete with bigger sites: features.

When big and small players compete for a niche, the competition looks like this. The small player is armed with focus and passion, but constrained resources. The big player has unlimited resources but likely doesn’t even recognize that the niche exists. Take away the resource constraints and the small player wins.