Modular social networking gadget specifications now allow use beyond pure social networking applications, offering both a core and social set of data models, APIs and gadgets

eXo has announced the release of eXo Social 1.0, an enterprise social networking package which supports OpenSocial, under an AGPL licence

Yahoo, Google and MySpace have formed a foundation to promote the OpenSocial platform as a neutral, community-governed specification for building social-networking applications, the companies announced Tuesday.

Open standards always cause security problems and Google's OpenSocial API introduced last week is no exception. Not only was an early application based on the standard hacked within minutes, it quickly became evident that OpenSocial is vulnerable and offers an open door to anyone who wants to put a little effort into pushing it open.

Social media and social networking are huge now-a-days, with Twitter, Facebook and the like being hugely successful at keeping friends and family in touch. Now only that, but social networks are huge for charities, with many causes being supported and heavily promoted via social networking.

So, you've heard about Google's free software release of its Gadgets server, and the new Open Social. And gosh, wouldnt it be nice if you could provide this technology to your users with your favorite free software Content Management System (CMS)?

Elgg is an open source application for rolling out a social network. It installs like any Web-based software, but instead of a blog or a wiki, it gives you all the components of a social networking site -- your own MySpace!

WordPress users rejoice! The latest release of BuddyPress finally brings all that social media goodness to standard WordPress installs. With BuddyPress 1.2, it should only take three steps to get BuddyPress working with a standard WordPress install.

Veteran tech entrepreneur Bob Bickel has let out a whisper of his new venture, Ringside Networks, which will aim to make social networking applications work outside the network.