What is Facebook Open Graph?

Whether you like it or not, Facebook is here to stay.

All those like me who spend lots of their waking hours online would probably be the first ones to nod their heads in unison on reading this.

It is everywhere. Almost everyone you can think of has a Facebook profile these days.

Not kidding, but even my driver has one. He asked me about my status update a few days back while he was driving me and my seven year old to the pediatrician, leaving me stunned for a moment.

While some people like to say that they don’t use their Facebook profiles anymore and have gone onto newer social networks, it turns out that Facebook has continued to improve its experiences as a platform that connects people together.

The latest case in point being the Open Graph, Facebook’s storytelling technology that utilizes the power of deep integration with profiles and combines that with the usefulness of apps.

Today, we will talk at length about this new feature.

What is Facebook Open Graph?

Open Graph is a new way of allowing apps created by developers to tell stories about the people who use them. Stories is one of the defining ways that people share the human experience with other people. By empowering apps to help tell that story, it allows users to connect even more with those whom they care about the most.

A Practical Understanding

The best way to understand open graph is through an example as trying to articulate upon the name and underlying concept of the technology is an exercise in generality.

Say that HBO have created an app for the popular “Game of Thrones” series (which, by the way I’m pretty sure they have).

Once the app is installed on your profile you can go to the page and choose from a variety of objects contained within the app–in this example let’s say that the objects in the app are the previous and upcoming episodes.

Among these objects are different actions that you can perform–in this example let’s say that the action of “Started Watching” and “Finished Watching” are the one’s available.

When the show starts, you go to the app and select the object (episode) that is about to come on. Once you’ve selected the episode you click the action of “Started Watching”.

By doing this you are informing the people who you are sharing with what your interests are and what you’re doing. They can then comment, like, etc the story of you doing whatever it is that you’re doing as it will show up on THEIR Newsfeed.

In this way open graph helps you tell the story of your life by allowing developers to extend the things that you are interested in by making apps about them. These apps can then share with the people that you care about what you’re doing.

The Four Elements

There are 4 elements that constitute open graph. They are:

• The actor- This is the user who installs the app.

• The app- The app is the vehicle that carries your story to the people that you care about by sharing with them

• The action- The action is the activity that the actor performs on the the object, and

• The object- This is the thing that the actor interacts with.

These elements allow open graph to tell the stories that make up a portion of your life.

Conclusion

Facebook Open graph is a great technology that allows users to achieve an added level of connectivity with the people that they care about.

There are many different apps out there to suit the interests of users and customizable actions that users can perform on the objects of the app. Each app must pass a review process before going live and must follow the privacy policies of the profile that installed it.

By sharing the things that we  are doing, we give others the chance to read stories of ourselves.