Voomaxer Use Case
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Background
Every day, millions of people lace up their sneakers and go outside for a run. Whether they are simply trying to make it around the block or attempting to break a four minute mile, runners all achieve a sense of personal accomplishment.
The Internet provides this large group of people with the ability to track their successes online. Not only can runners track their mileage and pace, race results, best times, favorite running routes, etc., but they can also share this information with others. This provides them with the ability to connect with other runners in order to share their results and find potential running partners.
Voomaxer is a Facebook application created by Jonathan Otto. It is a social application that allows athletes to record their running, biking, and swimming results and share with their friends on Facebook.
The Role of Ringside
As Social Application development progresses, the two dominant APIs are the Facebook API and the Open Social API. Ringside provides any website with the ability to host Facebook and/or Open Social applications and become a part of the Social Web. These websites will be able to create a relevant Social Network for their users as well as produce their own social applications using both their data and existing applications. Furthermore, Ringside employs Identity Mapping in order to establish a link between the website's social information and the big Social Networks such as Facebook.
www.runningco.com: Social Web Voomaxer Example
Haddonfield Running Company is a small, specialty running store in South Jersey with two sister stores in Moorestown and Mullica Hill. In order to compete with big box stores such as Sports Authority, the Running Company provides customers with personal service and consistently expands its customer base via word of mouth. It also has a successful website with over 1,000 visitors everyday that serves the South Jersey running community.
Employing the Ringside Social Application Server allowed Haddonfield Running Company to bring social capabilities to its customers online. Ringside allows the Running Company to utilize the Voomaxer Facebook application (http://apps.facebook.com/voomaxer/) on its website so that customers are able to create a profile and connect with friends on both www.runningco.com and Facebook. Ringside Identity Mapping also allows customers to link directly to their Facebook profiles.
Conclusion
Ringside Networks is focused on providing solutions to Social Web scenarios like the one described in this paper, and we have designed the Ringside Social Application Server to:
- Connect your website members to the Social Web
- Connect members to friends on your website, Facebook, or any OpenSocial site
- Connect social applications to your website, Facebook, or any OpenSocial site
- Connect your social applications to your content, data, and systems
Additional References
- Ringside Networks Social Business website links to a wide range of articles covering the business aspects of the Social Web
http://www.ringsidenetworks.com/socialbusiness/ - Ringside Networks team blogs cover industry, technical, and product related topics
http://www.ringsidenetworks.com/community/blogs/ - Why Build Social Applications into a Website?
http://bobbickel.blogspot.com/2008/02/why-build-social-applications-into-web.html
- Why Develop a Facebook Application?
http://bobbickel.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-develop-facebook-application.html
- Search Advertising vs. Social Applications
http://bobbickel.blogspot.com/2008/03/search-advertising-vs-social.html