When Vic asked me to
organize a campfire on campus, at first I thought he was joking. But when he kept asking how
big the fire was going to be, I quickly realized he wasn't. Thus Campfire
One was lit.
Campfire One is a means to share product
announcements with lots of people in a way which keeps pace with Google's release cycle. We
invite a few people to campus and record our news for the web. There's no Campfire Two, just
another Campfire One in the future. The 'One' signals that we've flipped the bit on something
we think is worth sharing.
Tonight at Campfire One we were very excited
to introduce OpenSocial, a common set of APIs for building social
applications across the web. With OpenSocial, developers have less to learn in order to build
for multiple websites. There are a number of companies
already working on the OpenSocial APIs, including those who presented with us tonight:
MySpace, Ning, hi5, iLike, FotoFlexer, RockYou, Slide, Viadeo, Flixster, LinkedIn, Ning,
Salesforce, Theikos, and Virtual Tourist. Watch Campfire One from earlier this evening:
By the way,
did you know that oak on a campfire is supposed to smoke less than fir? I don't think some of
our presenters believe it. You might say we had a bit of a real 'smoke
test' before rolling the cameras.
