---
title: open is over-used, part CXXXIV ("Open Social")
date: '2007-10-31'
tags:
- openservice
draft: false
legacy_url: https://lu.is/2007/10/open-is-over-used-part-cxxxiv-open-social/
legacy_source: wordpress
---

I'm thinking of calling my open services work 'principled services' going forward to split some of the difference between open and Free, and remove some of the ambiguity around the often-overloaded terms 'open and 'free'. In the meantime, we're about to get a flood of discussion of open services, courtesy of [Open Social](http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial), the new Google project.

I'm mocking them, a little bit, but it bears watching. The really interesting question, which I don't see fully answered yet, is whether or not this is just about widgets/developer platform, or if this is about the broader (and much more important) [open social graph](http://web.archive.org/web/20071028102719/http://www.plaxo.com:80/info/opensocialgraph). (Unfortunately, the news suggests the former.) Depending on the final form and how much control it gives to Google, it would almost certainly be better from an open/free/principled perspective than Facebook/Myspace. I look forward to seeing if/how mugshot will integrate.

[Technorati search of the news](http://technorati.com/search/%22open+social%22); the [actual press release](http://battellemedia.com/archives/004058.php) ((best press release ever- search for XXXX and Website Partner A)); [Techcrunch](http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/30/details-revealed-google-opensocial-to-be-common-apis-for-building-social-apps/).

(Tangentially, I'm irritated that orkut doesn't seem to let me integrate my old orkut account with my google account.)