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):

This was initially circulated in sept 2009. It's now Jan 2010, and time to proceed with scheduling a call.

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.

Links

A quick and partial selection of relevant links....

• http://www.w3.org/2009/dap/ eg http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-device-apis/2009Apr/att-0001/contacts.html
• http://www.w3.org/TR/widgets/
• http://wiki.opensocial.org/index.php?title=Resolve_Schema_with_Portable_Contacts
• http://incubator.apache.org/wookie/

Goals of the Meeting

• invited short status presentations from w3c widget, Device APIs (DAP), 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).