Social networking concepts are coming to the fore in a pair of fairly bold moves by two major software companies. Apple and Microsoft are both trying their hand at building communities in different ways - Microsoft for its XBox 360 and PC gaming arm and Apple in its efforts to build community into the latest OS X, Leopard.
Microsoft got the ball rolling with its XNA programming framework for making XBox games aimed at amateur and student programmers. The product, called XNA Game Studio Express, costs $99 per year and allows you to compile code to run on PCs and the 360 as well as share your work with others in the same network. Most games will probably never make it into the wild, but Microsoft expects some games to reach shelves.
Like a farm team, the Studio Express model gains lots of Microsoft goodwill while giving a generation of programmers access to the APIs that make Xbox such a compelling platform.
Apple is also following suit - sort of - by adding social networking features and Wikis to their new OS version, Leopard. The features include team logins, a Wiki server, and improvements to iChat for enchanced sharing and web meetings. There are also rumors of very interesting new improvements to iTunes:
Apple recently sent out a survey asking for information on the following details:
* The ability to view a friend’s wish list, with permission
* The ability to view what a friend is currently listening to, with permission
* The ability to view a friend’s playlist, with permission
* The ability to view a friend’s recent purchases, with permission
* The ability to view a friend’s favorite artists, with permission
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You can even get a headstart apparently. Guess OS X Leopard is floating around the internet somewhere…
Anyone confirm that they could install the install DVD’s?
I believe at WWDC, developers were given a beta copy of Leopard.
For checking out friends’ iTunes lists, check out the iSproggler or iScrobbler plugins from http://last.fm
I wonder if Apple will go after the Developer that released the developer’s copy of Leopard. I’m sure each copy has a unique tracking code just for this reason.
I have Leopard Beta and it installs fine on another partition on my mac mini… pretty cool too.
Jamie:
Does that seem to be pretty stable?
Perfect so far, mail is a bit buggy though, otherwise feels good enough to use day-to-day over Tiger.
Apple are also adding in tools for easy production of widgets so we should see a much greater amount of widget sharing.
Very interesting mash-ups between two competitors - nice job Mike for bring this out!
If apple succeds in somehow adding and using wikis easy in their new OS, then we could see a huge explosion in the use of wikis in the near future.
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 also includes some new social networking technology. there is an add-in called the knowledge network which collects information about who you email and IM and about what, compiling a profile of tags and people. The user can validate the profile or remove parts of it and submit it to a central server. SharePoint search can then prioritise results for people and documents placing hits from people you trust higher, or people trusted by people you trust etc. Expertise location is also a big area we have improved, helping you to find people in your network who can serve to introduce you to an expert. Interesting stuff.
I have taken a different spin on the news - focusing on what this means for the industry. Check it out here:
http://www.centernetworks.com/.....networking
Correction for you Mike, XNA Game Studio Express doesn’t cost $99 a year, it’s actually free, the $99 charge is only if you want to upload and test your games via Xbox Live, there is absolutely no charge if you are using it to create PC games.
Keep in mind that the Wiki is part of Leopard Server, not the consumer version of Leopard/ OS X 10.5. See Apple on Leopard Server.
Is google developing an operating system?
Everyone is getting into social search.