Drafting page for W3C SocialWeg incubator "widgets and social APIs" call - feedback welcomed

Hi folks (am Cc:'ing some folk I hope would be interested in joining
such a call, note that this isn't an exclusive list, just a starter
thread....).

http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/socialweb/wiki/WidgetsDiscussion is a
draft page for a meeting we're planning in the W3C SocialWeb Incubator
Group, where we hope to draw upon experience from both the W3C Widgets
and OpenSocial efforts, to identify possibilities for common APIs for
things like user profiles, addressbooks/contacts, social graph etc.

I'm circulating it at this stage for feedback on the agenda proposal.
Do you think such a meeting could be useful?

I know for example there are investigations into opening up APIs into
phone addressbooks for use with W3C Widgets; and in the OpenSocial
scene there has been an adoption of the PortableContacts protocol,
which operates over HTTP. And in every environment, people are
extending schemas with custom fields and structures. Apache have also
recently taken on the Wookie work, which explores the combination of
W3C Widgets and OpenSocial. In this context, I'd like to get relevant
parties together to compare notes, plans and experiences, and to
identify areas in which various kinds of convergence might be
possible.

Feedback welcomed in this thread, or from XG members directly into the
wiki. Let's deal with the content first before getting into call
scheduling mechanics...

cheers,

Dan

http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/socialweb/wiki/WidgetsDiscussion wiki
text copied below to save you clicking...

This is an agenda-drafting page for a special session of the Social
Web Incubator Group, devoted to the topic of social APIs in "widget"
technologies.

The agenda is being drafted by Dan Brickley, and is open to XG members
and interested parties, some of whom we'll invite explicitly (if you
want to contribute, contact Dan, danbri@danbri.org):

=Background=

There are two broad categories of installable Web widget: those that
are deployed within a Web page or site (eg. OpenSocial), and those
that are installed within a (typically desktop or mobile) widget
platform. Both allow quick and easy authoring of small embedded apps
using standard Web technologies, and both traditions are exploring
richer APIs - mainly exposed in Javascript - for making use of the
context within which the app is embedded. This meeting is called to
explore ways of avoiding fragmentation, such that application authors
who want to make use of user profile, addressbook/contacts and similar
information might make use of a common approach regardless of widget
platform.


=Goals of the Meeting=

* invited short status presentations from w3c widget, opensocial and
Apache Wookie (which combines these) groups
* identify current state of social APIs (incl. user profiles, 'social
graph', contacts db, authentication, etc.) in at least OpenSocial and
W3C Widgets work
* document state of current published plans where such data will be
exposed by a widget platform to 3rd party widgets; eg. addressbook
APIs exposed to Mobile widgets
* answer or make plans for answering questions such as:
** can W3C Widgets access an addressbook on a phone?
** what implementation experience exists that combine W3C Widgets with
OpenSocial or similar APIs
** to what extent can these architectures allow for decentralised
extension of schemas
** how do these schemas relate to vcard (and which versions)
** role of portable contacts
* What javascript APIs are developed / under development, and whether
these might allow developers some code portability between widget
platforms
* identify possible recommendations for final report, and
collaboration / prototyping opportunities

=Where and When=

The SocialWeb XG currently meet at 13:00 UTC. It is looking to change
soon to meet at 15:00UTC. If these times don't fit the schedule of
would-be participants, we can investigate a special-case time slot.
The meetings are usually conducted by teleconf using W3C's audio
bridge, Zakim; but also accompanied by IRC chat (irc.w3.org 6665
#swxg).

Received on Wednesday, 30 September 2009 14:11:34 UTC