OpenSocial Dev App

Today the OpenSocial Foundation released the OpenSocial Explorer, a new open source project meant to help developers learn how to build OpenSocial gadgets.

One of the biggest challenges any developer faces when trying to learn a new framework or component model is how to get started. OpenSocial has a robust and mature set of features that bring a tremendous amount of power to the developer. As every developer knows, it doesn't matter how easy a platform is to understand if you don't have something to help you get started!

The OpenSocial Explorer is meant to address this exact issue. It's goal is simple: Get you up and running in minutes.

The OpenSocial Explorer provides developers with sample gadgets demonstrating how to use various features of the OpenSocial specification. It allows developers to modify those samples and quickly re-render the application to explore how those changes effect the gadget. This not only allows you an easy way to understand all the features of OpenSocial but provides a great jumping off point for getting started with your own gadget.

The OpenSocial Explorer is a community effort and we are constantly adding new samples. We are also looking to host a version of this to further accelerate the launch time.

Within in the coming months we will try to address both of these but we need your help! We are looking for people interested in contributing to the project. We welcome all contributions so if you are interested in helping out evolve the project please contribute whatever you can! See the project page for information on how to get started. We encourage everyone to contribute back to the OpenSocial Explorer, however, we realize that may not be possible in all cases. So, if you find bugs or would like new features, please create a GitHub issue.

Check out the video below and get started today!!!!


Posted on behalf of Ryan Baxter by Mark Weitzel, President, OpenSocial Foundation

We are pleased to announce that the nominations for the Community Elected Board seat are now Open! The nomination period will run from March 22, 2013 through April 5, 2013. To nominate yourself for the board, simply email officers@opensocial.org with you name, company/project affiliation, and desire to be on the board.

Anyone OpenSocial member is able to serve on the board. The only requirement to nominate or hold the position is that you must be a member of the OpenSocial Foundation. There are no membership fees to join OpenSocial. All you need to do is fill out a simple on-line membership application.

The OpenSocial Foundation is an industry-recognized standards body dedicated to advancing the social web through community innovation and open source.  Widely supported by a majority of leading consumer and enterprise social platforms, such as IBM, Jive, and SugarCRM, the OpenSocial specification fosters the development of a growing set of socially aware off-the-shelf applications.  Through open source projects such as Apache Rave and Shindig, it provides a well-defined way for 3rd-party applications to richly interact with users directly in their activity stream.

I'm excited to announce the OpenSocial Foundations presence at ApacheCon NA in Portland at the end of February. We have two great sessions lined up...

• Make #hashtags come alive using Apache Rave and OpenSocial! ( http://na.apachecon.com/schedule/presentation/196/ ) presented on Monday, February 25th at 1:30pm by John Mertic and Mark Weitzel. We will take a deep dive into how to build integrations into Apache Rave using SugarCRM. Then, we'll see how that same integration can also be deployed on other OpenSocial containers, such as IBM Connections and Jive.
• OpenSocial Embedded Experiences with ActivityStrea.ms in Apache Rave ( http://na.apachecon.com/schedule/presentation/143/ ) presented on Tuesday, February 26th at 5:00pm by Matt Franklin. This presentation will show how you can take advantage of the OpenSocial support in Rave to build a stream-based user interface that offers situational awareness via ActivityStrea.ms and in-context interaction with via Embedded Experiences.

As a foundation, we are very excited to be participating in this event, and look forward to helping more people become aware of this open standard for social business middleware.

Many app developers have taken advantage of the new support for OpenSocial 2.0 for IBM Connections to build apps for the worldwide market leading social business platform.

TemboSocial, for example, has added peer recognition to IBM Connections and integrates into the activity stream and provides OpenSocial embedded apps . ISW who has built a gamification layer for IBM Connections has also taken advantage of the OpenSocial integration points. AppFusions has also used OpenSocial to integrate Atlassian's JIRA, Confluence and Stash with IBM Connections as shown in the demo below.

And there's plenty plenty more! In fact there's over 200 partners attending the Ready for Social Business Showcase at the IBM Connect reference.

With the #IBMConnect conference just a few days away, it's likely more app developers will start taking advantage of this as well. At the conference, there will be an App Dev Throwdown where 14 companies. The winner will be featured during Wednesday morning's keynote.

The conference is also a great opportunity to get even more app developers on board. At the IBM Connect conference, app developers can take advantage of the following sessions to learn how to use OpenSocial within the enterprise. Here's a list of all the App Dev and/or OpenSocial related sessions at the conference. Make sure you add them to your calendar:

• AD101: Social Applications Made Easy with the New Social Business Toolkit SDK
• AD103 : Social Standards Across IBM Connections, IBM Notes, IBM iNotes and IBM Domino
• AD104: IBM Connections Activity Stream Integration with OpenSocial
• AD206 : IBM Lotus Domino XPages: Embrace, Extend, Integrate
• AD212 : Whats New in IBM Lotus Notes Widgets and LiveText: Linking Your Data to the World!
• AD405: Empower your Social Business with SAP Processes in the Activity Stream
• AD407: Qualifying Round for App Dev Throwdown I
• AD408: Qualifying Round for App Dev Throwdown II
  
• BP209 : In The Land of Social Apps, the API is King
• CUST108: How 3M Integrated SAP into the Activity Stream Using OpenSocial
• ID101 : What's New in IBM iNotes 9.0 Social Edition
• INV110: App Dev Strategy: Coding Social Business Applications
• INV211 : The New Social Business Paradigm with OpenSocial
• INV213: The Roadmap for Enterprise Social: From Social Email to Universal Activity Streams
• JMP102 : Extending Your App Arsenal With OpenSocial
• JMP202: Extending IBM Connection to Build an Exceptional Social Learning Platform
• SHOW301: Becoming a Connections Developer: Lessons from the Field

Follow along @IBMConnect.

As you can see, with IBM's backing of OpenSocial 2.0, OpenSocial continues to take over the enterprise!

Posted on behalf of Luis Benitez

Happy New Year everyone! We hope 2013 will be as promising and rewarding of a year as it's shaping up for OpenSocial. We are excited to announce us being a part of several events this quarter...

IBM Connect

Once again there will be lots of OpenSocial going on at IBM Connect, going on in Orlando from January 27th thru the 31st. In the exhibits area stop by the IBM Signature Solutions Area to see how OpenSocial is being leveraged to extend the reach and integration of Social Capabilities to third-party applications. You'll learn more about OpenSocial and other standards are driving innovation for integration across business applications.

There also are a number of OpenSocial related sessions, namely...

• INV211 : The New Social Business Paradigm with OpenSocial
• AD103 : Social Standards Across IBM Connections, IBM Notes, IBM iNotes and IBM Domino
• AD206 : IBM Lotus Domino XPages: Embrace, Extend, Integrate
• AD212 : Whats New in IBM Lotus Notes Widgets and LiveText: Linking Your Data to the World!
• ID101 : What's New in IBM iNotes 9.0 Social Edition
• BP209 : In The Land of Social Apps, the API is King
• JMP102 : Extending Your App Arsenal With OpenSocial

ApacheCon NA

We will also be a part of ApacheCon North America 2013, going in Portland, OR from February 24th thru the 28th. The official conference, trainings, and expo of The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), ApacheCon draws Open Source users, developers, gurus, students, novices, community managers, and enthusiasts to address today’s issues, opportunities, and solutions focusing on the ASF’s nearly 150 projects and initiatives. With both Shindig and Rave as official Apache projects, we will be bring the OpenSocial message through two sessions...

• Make #hashtags come alive using Apache Rave and OpenSocial! - http://na.apachecon.com/schedule/presentation/196/
• OpenSocial Embedded Experiences with ActivityStrea.ms in Apache Rave - http://na.apachecon.com/schedule/presentation/143/
  

CeBIT 2013 - Hannover, Germany

We will also be at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany, which is the world's largest and most international computer expo. Held each year on the Hanover fairground, it is considered a barometer of the state of the art in information technology. We are excited to have a panel discussion with several OpenSocial Foundation board members, along with foundation president Mark Weitzel, on one of the stages. In addition, look for OpenSocial foundation members SugarCRM and IBM exhibiting, and come visit the OW2 village.

We look forward to having more events in 2013 to bring the OpenSocial message to the social business community.

Paris, France – November 30, 2012 – OpenSocial Foundation announced today on becoming an OW2 associate member. This formal relationship brings two market-leading open foundations together, bringing the message of social cloud middleware to a larger worldwide market. OpenSocial Foundation is a Platinum sponsor and exhibitor at this year’s OW2Con, with foundation president Mark Weitzel keynoting today on how open standards and open source are driving social business.

“The OpenSocial Foundation continues its commitment to reaching out across the industry to build a robust social business ecosystem. We are excited to work closer with OW2 and it’s consortium members to further advance standard based social middleware.” said Mark Weitzel, President of the OpenSocial Foundation

"We were excited to have OpenSocial as a Platinum sponsor of OW2 Con this year." said Cedric Thomas, CEO of the OW2 Consortum. "With the growth of cloud computing and SaaS delivered social business applications there is a great deal of synergy between OpenSocial and OW2. It only seemed natural to find ways to align our efforts more closely together. We look to move away from legacy portal systems and towards social systems of engagement, we look forward to working with the OpenSocial and Apache Rave communities to define and build the next generation open, standards based, social platform."

Announcement of OpenSocial 2.5 specification.

In addition, the OpenSocial Foundation also announces today the general availability of version 2.5 of the OpenSocial specification. This release adds in new features that were previously in incubation, such as the Common Container, which formalizes the APIs for application lifecycle and management, as well as adds new capabilities such as the ability to introspect the services with an OpenSocial platform through a metadata API.

“OpenSocial provides the leading and most mature standards based component model for SaaS delivered social business applications.”, said Mark Weitzel, President of the OpenSocial Foundation.
“Version 2.5 continues to set the benchmark for community driven innovation and fosters interoperability, choice, consistency, innovation, and quality between social platforms and 3rd party applications.”

For a more complete list of the changes, see the full release notes at http://bit.ly/os25publishedspecissues, and you can download the full specification at http://docs.opensocial.org/display/OSD/Specs.

About OW2
Founded in January 2007, OW2 is an independent industry community dedicated to developing open source code infrastructure and to fostering a vibrant community and business ecosystem. The OW2 Consortium hosts some one hundred technology Projects, including ASM,Bonita, eXo Platorm, Funambol, JOnAS, Joram, Orbeon Forms, PEtALS, SpagoBI and XWiki. More information at: www.ow2.org.

About OpenSocial
The OpenSocial Foundation, an industry recognized standards body, dedicated to advancing the social web through community innovation and open source. Established in 2008, the Foundation provides the leading and most mature standards based component model for SaaS delivered social business applications. Widely supported by a majority of leading consumer and enterprise social platforms, such as IBM, Jive, and SugarCRM, the OpenSocial specification fosters the development of a growing set of socially-aware off-the-shelf applications. Through open source projects such as Apache Rave and Shindig, it provides a well-defined way for 3rd party applications to richly interact with users directly in their activity stream. For more information, visit www.opensocial.org.

We are excited to announce we will be in Paris from November 27-29, 2012 to be a part of OW2Con. OW2Con is the annual conference for the OW2 consortium, which is an open source foundation focusing on open source middleware components. OpenSocial aligns nicely with that, and as such we are excited to be one of the Platinum sponsors for the event. Mark Weitzel, president of the OpenSocial foundation, will be keynoting at the conference on the changing landscape of social business and how open source is a part of it.

In addition, we will be holding a one-day workshop on November 27th, highlighting the shift to Social Middleware components in the industry today. We'll showcase how various companies are adopting this today and how they are doing it, and will provide the opportunity for hands-on demos of the technology and learning how to begin building OpenSocial container objects and leveraging embedded experiences. Learn more about the day's schedule at http://www.ow2.org/view/OW2Con-2012/OpenSocial_Workshop.

Both events are free to be a part of, but advanced registration is requested. You can register for the events at http://www.ow2.org/view/OW2Con-2012/OpenSocial_Workshop_Register . We look forward to seeing everyone there!

A team of mobile and gaming industry experts have collaborated to create and launch Taapi, an entirely new type of social game that uses the power of gamers around the globe to save energy.

The game is the first global, mobile gaming platform that will have a significant impact on the real-world.  Available via iOS for iPhones, iPods and iPads, Android, and the web, Tappi awards players points for being the first to shut off unused lights.

So, how does it work?

People tap in to Taapi to provide blocks of time where their homes (and lights) are available to the game for shut off. When a home is tapped in, it’s lights are anonymously added to a ‘pool’ of other lights that are waiting to be turned off.

Meanwhile, gamers race to be the fastest to turn off lights from that pool as soon they become available.
Gamers get the satisfaction of knowing that they are turning off lights all over the world that are not being used.  All with just a tap.

Gamers will have the ability to choose challenge games, geographies, light types, or random selections while playing to get to turn lights off from the pool of waiting lights. Every light and location is completely secure. Lights in the pool waiting for turn off are anonymous and not individually identifiable in any way.

Taapi leverages crowdsourced players to act on unused lights that are available in the pool for shut-off and rewards both players and the households that use Taapi. By being on Taapi, homes will benefit from saving money on their energy bills and also get points for every minute their lights are available to the game.

If some players want to keep their home’s lights all to themselves-that works too. Households can use Taapi to control only their own lights and create a local Taapi group of players within their WiFi network. They still get points for using Taapi and a nifty home control panel in the app.

The Taapi team has brought some powerful partners into the energy-gaming spotlight with them. Amazon is slated to fulfill orders for the Taapi in-home products and smart-chip giant NXP will be providing chipsets.

Taapi is appealing to a range of developers by providing a full API to provide hooks that can programmatically act on Taapi's services.

The Taapi API will provide access to features such as:

• Adding new players
• Authenticating players
• Calling player stats
• Calling general country, energy, and date stats
• Initiating a race session
• Obtaining the stats for a unique race session
• Polling for available races

Taapi has selected Atlassian (http://atlassian.com) products for community support, Mashery (http://mashery.com) for API hosting and they have a built-in an OpenSocial container for developers to write gadgets for Taapi using the OpenSocial (http://opensocial.org) standard.

Taapi & OpenSocial

Taapi's OpenSocial container support will allow developers to quickly and easily write OpenSocial compliant gadgets that can call and serve a number of Taapi features like public Taapi use statistics, aggregated stats, individual users stats and game session availability.

The Taapi OpenSocial container will support gadget authentication via OAuth to enable personalized, contextual player information and interaction as well.  Players will be able to add approved gadgets to their instances of the Taapi game and extend Taapi's functionality.

For example, a developer could write a 'My Country' Taapi gadget to alert a player when a session in a specific country is available, authenticate them, opt them into the game session and tweet about their participation, all in that country's native language(s).

Taapi founder Carol Glennon states, "Support for an accelerated development process was one of our top goals for the Taapi platform. Enabling gadgets through our OpenSocial container makes it easy for developers to gain fast access to our API while writing cool gadgets that users can use in Taapi right away."

Taapi has already distributed in-home prototypes to create a seed pool of lights that can be acted upon by players and is expected to launch their mobile suite over the next few months.

Learn More!

Watch the Taapi movie
Visit Taapi for the latest news and updates
Get more information about Apache Rave and OpenSocial

Posted on behalf of Don Martelli, Chief Marketing Officer, Taapi, by Mark Weitzel, President, OpenSocial Foundation


About Taapi

It's a party!!

To help kick off OSCON, the OpenSocial community is excited to host the first Apache Shindig / Apache Rave "beer forge"!  We've got space at The Spirit of 77 sports bar just a few blocks away from the OCC on Tuesday, July 17th for a chance for us to get together and have a few pints on OpenSocial! 

You'll have a chance to meet the leaders of our open source community that are working to move the social web forward through the Apache Shindig and Apache Rave projects. There will be plenty of opportunity to learn first hand how some of the industry's leading social platforms from IBM, Jive, Mitre and others are leveraging open source technologies in their products.

Plan to start off OSCON with the OpenSocial community and enjoy some good food & great beer as we celebrate another year of advancing the social web through open source!

Note: Make sure to RSVP so we can check you in at the event and have an accurate count of who's coming. Thanks!!

On Tuesday, February 28, the OpenSocial community came together to officially kick off the next round of development on the specification. It was a long, but very productive day. You can read the minutes of the meeting on the wiki.

Version 2.0.1 of the OpenSocial specification has been released for voting. One of the major updates to the specification is finalized support for the OAuth 2.0 specification.

For more information on the changes to the specification and related components, please see the voting thread and file diffs here.