A Facebook spokesperson has confirmed to us that the social networking company will announce an open-source initiative around its Facebook Platform sometime today or tomorrow. We originally broke this story we broke yesterday. We’ve also learned from another source that the name of the initiative will be fbOpen.
As Michael previously reported:
Facebook will turn the year-old Facebook Platform into an open source project, multiple sources have told us. The immediate effect will be to allow any social network to become Facebook Platform compatible - meaning application developers can easily take their Facebook applications and have them run on those social networks, too.
They’ll simply map their existing APIs to Facebook Platform (which isn’t trivial) and go. Expect to see the four major technical pieces of Facebook Platform - FMBL (markup language), FQL (query language), FJS (Javascript library) and the Facebook API to be open sourced and made available to anyone.
This is a nearly inevitable response to Open Social, which is backed by Google, MySpace and Yahoo. Open Social is also an open source platform, run by the Open Social Foundation
More details around the initiative will be announced in the next day or two.
Update: Facebook has issued the following statement about this initiative:
“We’re working on an open-source initiative that is meant to help application developers better understand Facebook Platform and more easily build applications, whether it’s by running their own test servers, building tools, or optimizing their applications. As Facebook Platform continues to mature, open-sourcing the infrastructure behind it is a natural step so developers can build richer social applications and share what they’ve learned with the ecosystem. Additional details will be released soon.”
So what is the potential for a site want to use their open source platform? I am not a facebook user. It will be great if someone can elaborate on what kind of potential it bring about.
@1 As far as I understand, applications written for facebook.com can be ported to that website with zero effort on the application writer’s part.
Don’t understand. If you had the story yesterday, why are you having it again today?
Which sites are going to bother to do this though?
I love how the tables have turned.
When Goog launched OpenSocial it was seen as a move to combat FB. Now that Jason Kincaid has so succinctly summarized that the FB platform has nothing but useless, spammy apps, Facebook turns around and tries to catch up on “openness”.
w00t w00t!
It would be awesome if MySpace and other OpenSocial networks supported both FBML and the OpenSocial platform. It would make life SO much easier for developers who are maintaining 2 sets of code.
There are some serious advantages to FBML vs. OpenSocial.
Uhm… here is what I wrote in a comment on SAI a few days ago (re: MSFT possbly buying Facebook, etc.). How nice that Facebook for its part is complying with my prediction so quickly…
As for MSFT buying them and fulfilling the other half, we’ll see…
(begin quote)
While nothing is certain, this [Microsoft-Facebook deal idea would be] already a much better idea than the Yahoo deal. Given what’s going on right now with MySpace adopting Google’s OpenSocial, and making deals with Twitter, Yahoo, et al. to use MySpace data/resources in their systems, MSFT could actually try to preempt Google from running away with social networking:
Buy Facebook and VERY QUICKLY throw weight behind Facebook’s API as a competing standard to OpenSocial in opening up the “walled garden” of Facebook in strategic ways. Facebook apps are starting to lose developers from what I hear, many of which may be moving to OpenSocial API app development. Such a move could stop the slow-down/bleeding, if developers had a sense that big MSFT dollars were now gearing to put the pedal to the metal…
The longer term question is not IF social data will become complete openly exchangeable on the Web, but when. There is no need to have the same things stored/replicated in 1/2 dozen or more places/systems.
Alternatively, MSFT/Facebook could just adopt OpenSocial, and then look to gain more influence on the standard, trying to out-flank/out-innovate MySpace/Google. No good if MSFT let’s Google run away with it in yet another area.
(end quote)
Totally useless. Appeases the bloggers and writers, helps developers with very little. PR stunt, just like the whole opensocial mess.
Everything about Facebook is so inconsequential and there’s so much darn focus on it here at TC. Talk about reality distortion fields - it seems as soon as you get a Facebook account and make “friends” you lose all touch with what matters (in business and in life - “real” life). Facebook is to Web dominance what Alexa was/is to Web rankings.
TC: Let’s here about more than Facebook and Yahoo/MS - so much more out there - so many more ideas making money and great businesses from brilliant people.
They understand that a network is kind of useless if you can’t do anything without it (kind of our motto at Smibs.com). Now the ‘war’ for the best apps can begin. Who will get them exclusively fbOpen or OpenSocial… is there a nice twist in the power game of social platforms coming up…?
It’s nice on paper but how many large networks are going to adopt something like this?
Can we please have another FaceBook story tommorow?
Wednesday: Interview with head of Open Source programs at FB
Thursday: Facebook announces release date in July for source
Friday: Facebook announces they will host on SourceForge
Next Week: Facebook Open Source “It’s coming, and how will it revolutionize the valley.”
I also propose that TechCrunch create tabbed pane UI, and give Facebook it’s own prominent tab, along with Twitter. Spin off fbcrunch.com, and twittercrunch.com
This really means, the face of social networks will soon be changing to even a more comprehensive, more effective tools that will be available for the people who will continue to use it everyday. This really is good for the end-user.
BTW, what no one is talking about is how Facebook is virtually forced to do this anyway. Alot of Chinese social sites have already cloned the FB API, so in effect, it was forced open, otherwise they’d face the prospect of total loss of control of their API, as an open source project would be run by a bunch of non-FB developers.
In this way, they atleast ensure that the most popular implementation project is stacked and staffed by FB employees.
I have to agree that there is a lot of focus on twitookle (twitte+facebook+google)
How about all those small startups that do really cool stuff or maybe even stuff that solve real problems and thus provide value. Reports on their ideas and efforts to make it to success are just as (or more) interesting then the latest ‘attack’ of fb on whomever.
fbOpen sounds like a golf tournament.
Now that I think of it, Zuck should host one!
This is good because:
1. it could instantly be the best open source solution to deploying a social network.
2. your new social network can talk to facebook and vice-versa.
@13 it’s a tech news blog….
Why?