The Business Web 2.0
As CEO of business-based social networking site WeCanDo.BIZ, read my take on the role Web 2.0 technologies can play helping businesses to grow.
Friday 6 February 2009, 12:00 PM
Sleeping With The Enemy: Facebook surprises all by hosting OpenID summit
These are crazy times in which we live and nothing seems crazier than Facebook welcoming Google, IBM, PayPal and Yahoo to discuss OpenID!
When I read the article by Caroline McCarthy on CNET (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10157980-36.html) I thought it might be a joke. But it's not 1 April. It would seem that Facebook really has signed up to the OpenID foundation and, further, will be hosting a summit later this month.
Now regular readers of my blog will know that OpenID and Google's initiaves to make it usable, such as Google Friend Connect, have been going head-to-head with Facebook's own social web operability answer Facebook Connect. With an announcement from one side, so comes an immediate salvo from the other. It's been my opinion that Facebook Connect is superior in most ways, although lacking the "open-ness" of its not-for-profit-but-in-the-interests-of-the-greater-good rival. This last point has put many off from going the Facebook Connect route. Now it would seem Zuckerberg and crew are keen to change that (more in Caroline's article).
Of course, this may all be a clever ploy to derail the OpenID initiative; or at least try and keep it one step behind Facebook's own efforts. But it could also mean a truly common standard for a login across the whole social web, with "friends" also being portable across networks and sites. Something everyone would welcome, site owners and users alike.
Still, it seems an odd move in many ways, in spite of claims that Facebook has always had its fans of OpenID internally (if that's so, why not develop Facebook Connect to open standards -- which have been around for more than a year -- in the first place?).
I wonder whether the recent decision by the W3C to start a Social Web Interoperability Incubator Group to steer a direction in protocols used for interoperability among social networks (which is going to work with the Open Web Foundation, the DiSo Project, and DataPortability.org, all of whom advocate OpenID and OAuth) had any influence of Facebook's decision to cosy up to their arch-rivals?
What do you think?
We were going to deploy facebook Connect on the WeCanDo.BIZ website, but I feel inclined to hold back now until its clearer on whether it will continue in its current form.
Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
When I read the article by Caroline McCarthy on CNET (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10157980-36.html) I thought it might be a joke. But it's not 1 April. It would seem that Facebook really has signed up to the OpenID foundation and, further, will be hosting a summit later this month.
Now regular readers of my blog will know that OpenID and Google's initiaves to make it usable, such as Google Friend Connect, have been going head-to-head with Facebook's own social web operability answer Facebook Connect. With an announcement from one side, so comes an immediate salvo from the other. It's been my opinion that Facebook Connect is superior in most ways, although lacking the "open-ness" of its not-for-profit-but-in-the-interests-of-the-greater-good rival. This last point has put many off from going the Facebook Connect route. Now it would seem Zuckerberg and crew are keen to change that (more in Caroline's article).
Of course, this may all be a clever ploy to derail the OpenID initiative; or at least try and keep it one step behind Facebook's own efforts. But it could also mean a truly common standard for a login across the whole social web, with "friends" also being portable across networks and sites. Something everyone would welcome, site owners and users alike.
Still, it seems an odd move in many ways, in spite of claims that Facebook has always had its fans of OpenID internally (if that's so, why not develop Facebook Connect to open standards -- which have been around for more than a year -- in the first place?).
I wonder whether the recent decision by the W3C to start a Social Web Interoperability Incubator Group to steer a direction in protocols used for interoperability among social networks (which is going to work with the Open Web Foundation, the DiSo Project, and DataPortability.org, all of whom advocate OpenID and OAuth) had any influence of Facebook's decision to cosy up to their arch-rivals?
What do you think?
We were going to deploy facebook Connect on the WeCanDo.BIZ website, but I feel inclined to hold back now until its clearer on whether it will continue in its current form.
Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
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