From O'reilly on Open Social... it's the data stupid!

Indeed it is all about the data... always has been, always will be. Just like any cool webmap or geospatial powered application... it's always about the data and data is king. Tim O'reilly has as interesting take on OpenSocial and slams the platform for the apparent lack of integration of data from multiple social networking applications... indeed that does seem somewhat limiting. O'reilly has pointed out that a recent dialog at a Web2.0 Berlin event brought to light the fact that Open Social will not enable developers to mix and mash data from multiple social networking platforms. Of interest, he cites Patrick Chanezon, Google's developer advocate for the program who had this to say... "No, you only have access to the data of the individual platform or application." It will be interesting to see and hear more on Nov 12 when the APIs are released to developers but until a platform comes around that enables a developer to take data from MySpace, linkeIn, flickr, youtube, twitter, and other cool web2.0 services will there truly be an OpenSocial enabler? Look at Google map mashups and the real coolness that is provided by the ability to mashup and mix data from multiple sources. See Tim's take over at Radar
See also http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/