OpenSocial: From Social Networks to Social Ecosystem

Abstract

Unlike the physical world where social ecosystems are formed from the integrated and managed relationships between individuals and organisations, the online digital world consists of many independent, isolated and incompatible social networks established by organisations that have overlapping and manually managed relationships. To bring the online digital world in-line with the physical world, integration of social networks, identification of overlapping relationships in social networks, and automation of relationship management in social networks are required. OpenSocial is a framework that enables social networks to interlink and self-organise into a social ecosystem guided by the policies of individuals and organisations.