Last.fm Launches OpenSocial App for Ning

Last.fm has created an application built on OpenSocial specifically for the creators of Ning. This allows individual members of the group to add the application to their personal profiles.
networks. The Last.fm application will be a Gadget option that Ning administrators can include in their group homepages.

The Last.fm app displays top music artists, which can be clicked on to direct to their artist profile on Last.fm. Users can edit the list to reflect their personal taste in music, and sync it with their own Last.fm account, which will pull their preferences from Last.fm. Additionally, users can listen to music via the application.

Social networking gets better with HiveLive

I’ve been following social networking platforms more recently especially with Google's 'OpenSocial' platform. Recently when I heard of the a new platform called HiveLive, which launched on November 5, I was expecting to see the same features that are available in other platforms.

HiveLive is a platform with a lot of standard social networking functionality. The platform's software enables companies to rapidly deploy custom-fit enterprise communities built around people, their relationships, and their shared knowledge. HiveLive possesses strong capabilities, that give ordinary users the ability to control the modules deployed within a social network.

Social networks often incorporate many Web 2.0 tools, thus with it's Web 2.0 building blocks - called "Hives" - that can be easily configured to function as a wide range of community applications (blogs, wikis, forums, FAQs, and more), HiveLive is attempting to mix things up a bit.

Network users can now choose to add their own 'hives' to an existing social network, configure the type of 'hive' (blog, forum, wiki, etc.), and then determine who within the network gets to use them. This allows users to be in control.

The HiveLive platform is flexible enough so that you don’t even have to create a hive that’s easily categorized. If you just want to share a string of items with friends, you can create a blog-like page with a variety of data types. Users can also create their own hives by copying other hives with a few clicks of the button.

So if you want to create and run a blog with friends about a shared interest or create a new blog 'hive' that everyone can see but only a few can edit or you want to collaborate on a project with team members using a 'wiki' or just create a 'wiki hive' that only a few people can access at all, HiveLive remains the first community platform that seamlessly integrates social networks and information networks.

Google Launches 'OpenSocial' Platform

As first reported at TechCrunch, Google has announced a social networking platform called OpenSocial, which includes tools to allow developers to create applications that utilize personal and social data contained in participating social networks - the first step toward putting you back in control of your online relationships.

Google appears to be supplying the "social graph" - the map of relationships between people that makes it possible for you to see when your friends add applications, photos or new connections to their profiles - with tools to allow developers access to the social graph and other personal data on participating networks.

Several players in the social networking space such as Hi5, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Orkut, Ning Engage.com, Friendster, Hyves, imeem, MySpace, Oracle, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING as well as widget developers RockYou, Slide, iLike and Flixster have all signed on to supply applications based on the platform. Unsurprisingly, Facebook is not on the list.

According to Mashable, Google finally released their open source container sample on November 9. After looking through it and the accompanying documentation, it definitely provides a good starting point for potential OpenSocial developers to begin forming the basis for their applications.