With all the recent buzz on OpenSocial, Google's new open API for social networks, Web Guild's event: OpenSocial--High Octane for Widgets and Web Apps caught my eye. So I headed down to the Googleplex on Wed. night to listen to the panel discussions to find out more about OpenSocial with an eye for how nonprofits can leverage this platform.

Before committing resources to particular milestones & objectives for a fundraising campaign that employs groups, events, and applications on Facebook, OpenSocial, and other platforms, test (AB testing) the relative appeal of various assets (themes, messages, actors, stories, text, images, video, wikis, audio, speakers) and tools for your campaign on a representative sample of your target audience/engaged membership.

Some set of elements fit together and perform as a whole better than others. Find out which combinations create the best results.

Once testing is complete, estimate:

Tomorrow Google will launch OpenSocial.

ZDNet's post, Google's OpenSocial: What it Means explains what it will be:

"[T]he set of APIs allows developers to create applications that work on any social network that joins Google’s open party. So far, besides Google’s Orkut social net, LinkedIn, hi5, XING, Friendster, Plaxo and Ning (see Marc Andreessen’s post) have joined the party.