A new software application allows users to publish information from their Facebook social networking account directly to their personal blogs.
Six Apart, steward of the TypePad blog publishing system, released Blog It, a software application that enables users to cross-post information on Facebook to blogs using software from most of the major blog hosting companies, such as WordPress, Blogger, Twitter, Vox and Movable Type.
The Blog It application — which must first be added to a user’s Facebook site — also allows users to instantly notify people in their social network about the post using Twitter and Pownce, text messaging services that send updates to buddy lists.
“By bridging the gap between blogging and social networking, Six Apart brings social tools to bloggers all over the Web no matter the publishing platform they use,” said David Recordon, the open platforms tech lead at Six Apart. “Blog It is a power tool for bloggers who want to spread the word to their friends and colleagues about the content they’re creating.”
Open Applications
Six Apart’s release of a tool that allows people to post using software it doesn’t own is part of a growing, open access movement happening in social media. As more people sign up for networks that allow them to post information about themselves on social networks, photograph and video sites, mobile networks and music network, companies are looking for ways to create aggregation services that pull all of that disparate information into one place.
The OpenSocial standards group has been working to create a set of protocols that will easily allow people to port their identity, social contacts and content from Web site to Web site.
Lifestreaming at Large
The OpenID application allows people to have one centralized identification, which can be used to sign into any number of accounts. The standards group is now working to develop a standard for social contacts and content, said John McCrea, vice president of marketing at Plaxo, a Web-based address book.
While Six Apart’s application doesn’t necessarily meet the as-of-yet determined standards, the openness of the application does mirror what the OpenSocial group is trying to create: a place where individuals own their information and can easily port that wherever they want.
“[The Six Apart application] is an interesting development because it’s part of a general sea change for users using social networking,” McCrea told TechNewsWorld. “It’s enabling the users’ desire for free movement between services.”
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