The best take-away from Facebook F8 was the launch of Open Graph (an open API to retrieve data) and overall support/adoption of open source technologies by Facebook. These tools will change the way developers code, allowing for us to make simpler and lighter systems.

Open Graph opens doors

I’ve long been a supporter and developer of microformats (formats that aim to set a standard or rule for data formatting) and RDF standards for the web, but my biggest frustration has been with the lack of adoption by other technologies. To date the only microformats that have any real weight are hCard (much like vCard, which is a data format that sets a standard for contact information) and hCal (data format that sets a standard for calendars), which allow data to be formatted with XML markup to define objects and properties. After being set as a wanted standard by the development community almost 5 years ago, it’s taken many apps up till this last year to adopt them. Now we finally see these formats used for apps like Microsoft Outlook, Mac Mail, iCal, etc.

Facebook’s claims of Open Graph imply compliance to make RDF standards and remain semantic, as well as adopt new standards. I was a bit sceptical about how open this format would really be. Facebook has long been a giant that’s bullied us developers to learn new markup and programming techniques with their proprietary frameworks like FBML, FQL, etc. So immediately following the announcement of Open Graph, I tracked down and talked with a few Facebook engineers to confirm or deny how open this standard would be. They made no claims of anything concrete, but told me that Facebook will be supportive and quick to adopt any standards demanded by the dev community. This means groups like microformats.org may be able to define how we adapt new data standards. I believe this is a HUGE step in the right direction and will allow companies like Yelp, Amazon, Pandora, etc to put new standards into practice that Facebook could quickly swallow. The facebook developers also mentioned how Facebook is beginning to open source their server side technologies and frameworks such as Hip Hop and XHP which further proves that facebook is finally giving back to the community.

An example of a new Open Graph Object

Pandora could lead the dev community by creating their own Graph Object called ‘audiotrack’ which is used to provide data about a specific track. The audiotrack object could look much like this:

{
	"type": "audiotrack"
	"name": "Without Me - Eminem",
	"metadata": {
		"trackinfo": {
			"title":	"Without Me",
			"artist":	"Eminem",
			"album":	"Curtain Call - The Hits"
		}
		"trackdata": {
			"kind":		"MPEG",
			"size":		"6.3 MB",
			"bitrate":	"179 kbps",
			"samplerate":	"44.100 khz",
			"released":	"14400",
			"formato:	"MPEG-1, Layer 3",
			"channels":	"Joint Stereo",
			"id3tag":	"v2.3",
			"encodedby":	"LAME 3.90"
		}
	}
}

This format could then be submitted to a site like microformats.org and refined by the development community. This allows developers and industry leaders to work together to make new standards that we can all enjoy.

Moving Forward

I know that I personally, am going to get back in the game to promote microformats. I really believe that Facebook could help move technology forward as a whole, but not without the help and acceptance of the community.

What do you think about Open Graph, and do you think it will be widely adopted?