ir11 bodle final

'Opening the social media ecosystem'

Robert Bodle IR11 - Göteborg

Outline

intro benefits of interoperabilityOpen APIs* and privacy concerns other concernsclose

*APIs - application programming interfaces

Open APIs – what are they?

sex organs of interoperability

Open APIs – sharing data

between sites and services . . .

Open APIs – how they work

calls routed through 3rd party server

Open APIs – how they work

Open APIs – cross-posting

Syndicating messages on various “web platforms simultaneously” (Global Voices Advocacy 2009)

An ecosystem of 3rd party developers

build on top of a platformmutual dependencyadded valuedriving trafficgiving birth

a world of 3rd party web apps

mashups widgetssocial gamesdesktopmobile social plug-ins

mashup integrates 3 APIs: Mappy API Google Latitude API

Facebook API

a world of 3rd party web apps

mashups widgetssocial games desktopmobile social plug-ins

widget

a world of 3rd party web apps

mashups widgetssocial games desktopmobile social plug-ins

Est. $2b Industry by 2012

a world of 3rd party web apps

mashups widgetssocial games desktopmobile social plug-ins

a world of 3rd party web apps

mashups widgetssocial games desktopmobile social plug-ins

The “Like” button

Benefits of interoperability

prevent vendor lock-in* drive competition drive innovationreduce costs

Jon Postel championed non discriminatory standardization and interoperability

*Dependence on a singe vendor: e.g. IBM (hardware), MicroSoft (software), Facebook (SNS)

open standards and interoperability on the WebHTMLMosaic browser (GUI)early APIs (eBay, Amazon, Google)market lock-in?

rivalry exclusion

The pattern develops: Facebook APIs

Facebook Developer (2006) Facebook Platform (2007)Facebook Connect (2008)Open Stream (2009)Open Graph (2010)

friends, profile info, photos, events

The pattern develops: Facebook APIs

Facebook Developer (2006) Facebook Platform (2007)Facebook Connect (2008)Open Stream (2009)Open Graph (2010)

yours and your friends' profile info

Facebook APIs: the pattern unfolds

Facebook Developer (2006) Facebook Platform (2007)Facebook Connect (2008)Open Stream (2009)Open Graph (2010)

externalizing activity streams

The pattern develops: Facebook APIs

Facebook Developer (2006) Facebook Platform (2007)Facebook Connect (2008)Open Stream (2009)Open Graph (2010)

external desktop and mobile apps – clients

One API to rule them all

Facebook Developer (2006) Facebook Platform (2007)Facebook Connect (2008)Open Stream (2009)Open Graph (2010)

Sharing one's 'social graph'

Social plugins

Unlike Beacon which broadcasted information about user's web purchases without permission, the “Like” button encourages people to volunteer their tastes and preferences.

What is being shared?

*B is info available with FB Developer, B&W is available w/Open Graph

Friends

News feed

Profile feed

Likes

Movies

Books

Notes

Photo Tags

Photo Albums

Video Tags

Video Uploads

Events

Groups

Check-ins

Privacy, autonomy, freedom

anticipate consequencesinformed decisionsautonomyfreedom from interference

or “informational self determination” (Tavani 2010)

Open APIs and other forms of enclosure

colonizationprescribed info-flowscommodificationlock-in and dependency

interoperability revisited

transparentprivate/secureuser controlnondiscriminatory

'Opening the social media ecosystem'

Thank you for your attention.

robert_bodle@mail.msj.edu

http://twitter.com/robertbodle

'Opening the social media ecosystem'

Robert Bodle IR11 - Göteborg