This is going to be a quick update, as I have more research and church to attend to. :P

I've been doing a lot of reading on the OpenSocial specifications, and poking around of the various social networking and social application websites (such as MySpace, Orkut, and Google Friend Connect), and while I still feel the original idea of creating an extension to allow Joomla! to not only host OpenSocial applications, but also to provide developers with a platform from which to launch new applications, is the most robust and complete idea, I must recognize the wiser and far more seasoned suggestions of my wonderful mentor, Amy.  Developing such a complete package, I think, would serve as an excellent ultimate goal for this project, in tandem with unifying the work on Facebook integration that Chalet is working on.  But given the time constraints inherent to the GSoC program, and (here is the clincher) the simple fact that I personally am not as talented or knowledgable in creating development environments within development environments as I am system integration, I should stick to pursuing one side of the equation.

For the time being.

UPDATE: Project Revision

Original Draft: Design and implement an extension to interact with the Joomla! CMS and its database, as well as any OpenSocial-powered website, to allow two-way communication between any OpenSocial applications installed on the Joomla! website and the social networking domain.  Concurrently, provide a platform within Joomla! from which OpenSocial applications can be created and launched into OpenSocial-powered networking websites.

Revision: Design and implement an extension to interact with the Joomla! CMS and its database, as well as any OpenSocial-powered website, to allow two-way communication between any OpenSocial applications installed on the Joomla! website and the social networking domain.

OTHER

Tasks: Continue investigating the OpenSocial API and Joomla! core; set up a meeting time with Chalet to discuss the architecture and design of his Facebook project; discuss further project specifics with Amy; test sample OpenSocial app (pending developer status approval)

Next Post: By the next update, I will (hopefully) have approvals in hand for developer status from MySpace, Orkut, and Friend Connect, allowing me to proceed with testing of OpenSocial applications to further my knowledge of how to integrate them into Joomla!.  Also, I plan on having met with both Chalet and Amy regarding the various aspects of the project and the architectures of both the Joomla! core and the extension I am intending to build.