I'm surprised everybody is so excited about this. Yesterday's changes seem less about opening up than helping people deal with notification spam by changing the delivery mechanism format from e-mail to RSS.
For me, the most important data on Facebook is the News Feed. If Facebook really wants to open up, they'll let me read my News Feed in the same application I read all my other feeds -- Google Reader.
Robert Dewey
· 2 years ago
I don't think Twitter is dead without Facebook. I confess, I don't use Twitter... but I could see a use for it in the enterprise software-as-a-service game where fast updates are critical. Then again, RSS is expected to fill that gap... but I think Twitter has better mobility. Nothing like hopping on your phone and Twittering "meeting at 5" to your colleagues.
Isaac
· 2 years ago
Maybe OpenID can solve all the problem, dual-openess. Another question, once you have twitter, why don't you still need facebook? Also you using Google reader to check the update is another burden. You can use Anothr.com to keep alerted for any updates of facebook.
Farhan Lalji
· 2 years ago
It's what people do with the data that will be interesting. So now that the feeds are out let's see the widget's that take this one step further - i.e. integrate with blogs, push to mobile etc. My guess is that F'book has dipped it's toe in and will open up other elements once this trial goes smoothly.
Am I the only one who's concerned with the fact that people can see my friends posted items and all my friends status updates simply by knowing me?
Robert Seidman
· 2 years ago
I want what you want, Fred -- but how does anyone get paid?
At the moment Facebook's API won't let you update your status programmatically. I did write a small piece of code that does it - http://www.muscetta.com/2007/08/03/facebook-sta... Actually, my code is only a C# port of another piece of code written in PHP I found on the net - http://www.nexdot.net/blog/2007/04/20/updating-... It works, but until they (facebook) decide to provide an official API for it, it remains only a dirty hack...
Julian Bond
· 2 years ago
"I want to use Twitter to update my Facebook status."
Me too. Where are the external APIs that allow external programs to manipulate Facebook data?
anon
· 2 years ago
bit off subject but: speaking of twitter. re: gossip i read your post, i chked out your 'what i am doing', i cut pasted and whamo , i'm at flickr. the result of a little foot work ( perhaps a walk to the office) and a blackberry. a little gossip is always good. so i'll get top the point. i hear madonna is buying 5 floors. in the hood of 50 mil. total custom hand built interiors. could be cool. plus cheap at that price.
i love this world wide inter web thing. i marvel at the way news (gossip) travels today. back to work.
David Bayer
· 2 years ago
Fred,
I appreciate your thoughts and insights and have become a recent reader of your posts. I agree that a closed system is counterintuitive to the open, collaborative aspect of the web and is not conducive to an online "winner take all strategy". That being said, I'm not sure I agree that there is no "winner take all" strategy on the internet. While I'm a big proponent of multiple Internet operating systems as the most likely outcome of the next dozen years, I'm not sure one should rule out the possibility of a platform lockin similar to Microsoft's desktop umbrella. After recently rereading several articles from the mid 90's about the future of the Internet, its pretty clear that, generally speaking, we don't know what we don't know.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the rest of us & keep up the good work!
David Bayer President DataBanq Media
medyum
· 1 year ago
You are right.
Dave
· 2 years ago
That's the only way Twitter will survive if Facebook opens up and allows Twitter to be the carrier of status messages. Without doing this, Twitter is dead.
All Comments
For me, the most important data on Facebook is the News Feed. If Facebook really wants to open up, they'll let me read my News Feed in the same application I read all my other feeds -- Google Reader.
Am I the only one who's concerned with the fact that people can see my friends posted items and all my friends status updates simply by knowing me?
Can We Get Everything We Want...for Free?
Open means giving and taking, sending and receiving, reading and writing. I'd still say that the people claiming Facebook is currently open are mad.
I did write a small piece of code that does it - http://www.muscetta.com/2007/08/03/facebook-sta...
Actually, my code is only a C# port of another piece of code written in PHP I found on the net - http://www.nexdot.net/blog/2007/04/20/updating-...
It works, but until they (facebook) decide to provide an official API for it, it remains only a dirty hack...
Me too. Where are the external APIs that allow external programs to manipulate Facebook data?
re: gossip
i read your post, i chked out your 'what i am doing', i cut pasted and whamo , i'm at flickr. the result of a little foot work ( perhaps a walk to the office) and a blackberry.
a little gossip is always good.
so i'll get top the point. i hear madonna is buying 5 floors. in the hood of 50 mil.
total custom hand built interiors. could be cool. plus cheap at that price.
i love this world wide inter web thing. i marvel at the way news (gossip) travels today.
back to work.
I appreciate your thoughts and insights and have become a recent reader of your posts. I agree that a closed system is counterintuitive to the open, collaborative aspect of the web and is not conducive to an online "winner take all strategy". That being said, I'm not sure I agree that there is no "winner take all" strategy on the internet. While I'm a big proponent of multiple Internet operating systems as the most likely outcome of the next dozen years, I'm not sure one should rule out the possibility of a platform lockin similar to Microsoft's desktop umbrella. After recently rereading several articles from the mid 90's about the future of the Internet, its pretty clear that, generally speaking, we don't know what we don't know.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the rest of us & keep up the good work!
David Bayer
President
DataBanq Media