Comments on: Web 2.1: how to innovate using Facebook http://innovatebig.com/index.php/2007/06/02/web-21-how-to-innovate-using-facebook/ creating something from nothing by Rod Ebrahimi Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:34:59 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Jarkko Laine http://innovatebig.com/index.php/2007/06/02/web-21-how-to-innovate-using-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-158 Jarkko Laine Wed, 22 Aug 2007 06:05:48 +0000 http://innovatebig.com/index.php/2007/06/02/web-21-how-to-innovate-using-facebook/#comment-158 The downside of the Facebook platform is that it, in Jason Kottke's [1] words, "is the new AOL". It's a proprietary platform, all the data is basically closed. You're not opening everything up by writing a Facebook app, you're tying everything down to Facebook: <blockquote> "As it happens, we already have a platform on which anyone can communicate and collaborate with anyone else, individuals and companies can develop applications which can interoperate with one another through open and freely available tools, protocols, and interfaces. It's called the internet and it's more compelling than AOL was in 1994 and Facebook in 2007" </blockquote> The problem in the process you describe is that while Facebook is huge, it's only one closed platform. What if MySpace, LinkedIn, Google and all the other big names develop their own proprietary platforms you also want to tap into? I guess it would be neither fast or cheap anymore. So I'm much more interested in ways to connect the loosely coupled platforms such as Twitter, Upcoming, LinkedIn (and dotherightthing.com) etc etc in a way <em>I</em> want, openly, not in a walled garden like Facebook. I think microformats and OpenID are great steps towards that goal, the Facebook Platform (while surely being very good for them) in its current form isn't. [2] http://www.kottke.org/07/06/facebook-is-the-new-aol The downside of the Facebook platform is that it, in Jason Kottke’s [1] words, “is the new AOL”. It’s a proprietary platform, all the data is basically closed. You’re not opening everything up by writing a Facebook app, you’re tying everything down to Facebook:

“As it happens, we already have a platform on which anyone can communicate and collaborate with anyone else, individuals and companies can develop applications which can interoperate with one another through open and freely available tools, protocols, and interfaces. It’s called the internet and it’s more compelling than AOL was in 1994 and Facebook in 2007″

The problem in the process you describe is that while Facebook is huge, it’s only one closed platform. What if MySpace, LinkedIn, Google and all the other big names develop their own proprietary platforms you also want to tap into? I guess it would be neither fast or cheap anymore.

So I’m much more interested in ways to connect the loosely coupled platforms such as Twitter, Upcoming, LinkedIn (and dotherightthing.com) etc etc in a way I want, openly, not in a walled garden like Facebook. I think microformats and OpenID are great steps towards that goal, the Facebook Platform (while surely being very good for them) in its current form isn’t.

[2] http://www.kottke.org/07/06/facebook-is-the-new-aol

]]>