Update: MySpace, SixApart, and Bebo have officially joined the OpenSocial!
TechCrunch >_ “OpenSocial is a set of three common APIs, defined by Google with input from partners, that allow developers to access core functions and information at social networks:
Hosts agree to accept the API calls and return appropriate data. Google won’t try to provide universal API coverage for special use cases, instead focusing on the most common uses. Specialized functions/data can be accessed from the hosts directly via their own APIs. (more…)
{via TechCrunch} :: MySpace is gearing up to launch MySpace Platform, according to a number of third party developers who’ve been contacted for input on the product. While this has been rumored since
June, this is the first indication that the service is preparing to actually launch. And we also have information that suggests that it will be announced next week at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.The new developer platform, like Facebook Platform which was announced in May, will essentially be a set of APIs and a new markup language that will allow third party developers to create applications that run within MySpace. Developers will be able to include Flash applets, iFrame elements and Javascript snippets in their applications, and access most of the core MySpace resources (profile information, friend list, activity history, etc.). Applications will need to be hosted on MySpace servers.
And in a big change in strategy for MySpace, developers will be able to serve their own advertising within their applications, and keep 100% of the revenue (Facebook also allows this).
Suddenly Facebook, with nearly 5,500 third party applications, has significant competition around their platform - Within a month both MySpace and Google (see our post here) will probably have launched their own services. Platform competition is great for developers, but it also means they need to create and maintain separate code for each platform they choose to play on. Someone is hopefully working on a startup that will streamline that process for people. Whoever does it first, and best, can have a winner on their hands.
Nickelback - All the Right Reasons - Rockstar (Unedited) -
Song Meaning via Wikipedia
The song details the stereotype that most people have about the life of a rockstar. The lead singer, Chad Kroeger, assumes the role of a person wanting to get to that life. It also features many clichés and popular beliefs of what fame can get one, such as
“I want a brand new house/ on an episode of Cribs/ And a bathroom I can play baseball in/ And a king size tub big enough/ for ten plus me/ I’ll need a credit card that’s got no limit/ And a big black jet with a bedroom in it/ Gonna join the mile high club/ At thirty-seven thousand feet/ I want a new tour bus full of old guitars/ My own star on Hollywood Boulevard.” [1]
Spoken-word vocals between each verse are provided by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Gibbons assumes the role of the rock star who has already made it, asking challenging questions to the would-be newcomer. Others have interpreted his lines as the devil egging the narrarator on to sell his soul for the rockstar lifestyle, (i.e. “Tell me watcha want”,”Ah, so watcha need? “). [2] It is also mentioned that Billy Gibbons character is not an aged rocker. As he is offering not just advice to the new rocker it is possible that Billy’s character may be the devil. This comes from the long history in music of hopefuls allegedly selling their souls for fortune and fame as a musician. The most famous of these being blues patriarch Robert Johnson.
(more…)
Brad Fitzpatrick and David Recordon have just published a compelling post entitled, “Thoughts on the Social Graph.” If I could sum up their virtual thesis, I would say that it is a manifesto calling out for a semantic approach to social networks. Users would benefit greatly if their social networking profile/friends list was an open data set that could be ported across all social networks. As social networks have evolved, from Friendster -> MySpace -> Facebook, users have been burdened with the tedious tasks of continuously re-entering their profile information and re-sending out invites to their already established friends list onto the latest social network of choice. This switching cost can lead to a social graph disconnect wherein friends can be disconnected during this manual process. This social [networking] commentary is good news to OpenID advocates as a portable social profile may be attached to OpenID; thereby, permitting a complete and semantic social network graph that is not controlled by Corporations (FOX [MySpace] and Facebook)–the web 1.0 silo mentality. This is an interesting and important topic that creates a virtual venn diagram of today’s top internet topics: the semantic web (Web 3.0), OpenID, collective intelligence, social networking, etc…
Wired.com has just put MySpaceMP3.org on blast with the following posting: “In what could become the next big headache for bands and labels who have uploaded their music to MySpace to be streamed but not downloaded, a site called MySpaceMP3.org allows users to enter a band name (or whatever other word a band uses for its myspace.com/[name] URL) and download any of the MP3s hosted on their page for free.The site doesn’t host files; MP3s download directly from myspacecdn.com, where MySpace apparently stores music, using lengthy, unique URLs that only work once.
Downloaded songs lose their filenames and ID3 tags, so you’d have to rename and retag each song you download. Plus, the MP3s are only encoded at 96 Kbps with a 22.05 kHz sampling rate. But if there’s a song on MySpace you’ve been dying to load onto your MP3 player, even if it involves a little legwork for a lowish-quality result, now’s your chance.”
