Can I please have s'mores

By Andrew Bowers, Google Developer Programs

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.