When I talk to folks about Social Business, one of the first things I am asked is – what are the underlying standards and concepts?  I wanted to jot down a few social concepts and resources as a way to foster discussion on what is important, what is not, and eventually what should an overall social architecture and standards suite look like.

Activities – Activities allow individuals to process information from people and events they care about

Activity Streams – Serialization of a stream [e.g. Facebook newsfeed] of social activities.  Manifested in the Activity Streams specifications:

1. Activity Base Schema 1.0
2. ATOM Activity Streams 1.0
3. JSON Activity Streams 1.0

Apache Rave – A web and social mashup engine that aggregates and serves web widgets by integrating Apache Shindig and Apache Wookie (love that name!)

Apache Shindig – An OpenSocial container to host OpenSocial Apps and handle REST and RPC Requests.

1. Gadget Container Javascript
2. Gadget Rendering Server
3. OpenSocial Container Javascript that sits atop the Gadget Container
4. OpenSocial Data Server

Container – A component hosting environment

Gadget – a mini app that can be published to and assembled by an OpenSocial compliant Container

GitHub – An open repository for Open Source and private collaboration projects.

OpenSocial – Standard defined by the OpenSocial Foundation that defines  a container and an open set of APIs for web based social network apps. 

SAP JAM – the first true social business platform integrating business processes with social concepts to improve enterprise efficiency

Schema.org – A collection of schemas that can be used to standardize markup of web pages to increase search engine recognition.