Bumped into this article. I really do feel sorry for the Wired writers.

Where Facebook’s platform provides a proprietary programming language for developers to build applications that run inside the site (so you can send you friends a fresh pair of virtual diapers or whatever), LinkedIn has created a platform in the sense of what the word used to mean — a way of mixing, mashing, repurposing and sharing your data. Think Flickr, not Facebook.

This is rich. So, if Facebook doesn’t allow the data to be pulled off it’s site, applications like iLike and DivShare must be inventing all the data that they keep flashing around. Or even something as simple as my Photos2RSS must be doing something very very illegal.

As an example of the second half of LinkedIn’s new platform, the company has announced a partnership with Business Week which will see LinkedIn data pulled into the Business Week site … Call it six degrees of Business Week, but it does something Facebook has yet to do — it connects your data with the larger web.

And what is Facebook’s beacon supposed to be an attempt at? Sure, it is data coming in, not going out; but the final result is the same. All your doings and workings from everywhere on the Internet comes to Facebook, and they make it available through F8 for anyone who wants the data (for the people who have allowed it to be shared).

Many of the gritty details about the new APIs haven’t been released yet, but we can tell you that the LinkedIn platform uses REST-based APIs and will have access to data like your profile, your network, other LinkedIn profiles, network feeds and more.

And Facebook has done nothing of this sort! Those bastards!

However, all applications will need to approved by LinkedIn, so it’s more likely we’ll see useful stuff like conference calendars or job listing apps than virtual drink swapping.

Exactly what we signed up on Facebook for! To look for jobs, colleges and schools. Who wants friends … we’re trying to build a resumé here!

LinkedIn may lack some of the buzz and magazine cover hype of Facebook, but kudos to LinkedIn for taking inspiration from APIs like Flickr’s rather than the much touted, but still essentially useless, Facebook platform.

Forgetting the fact that Facebook’s platform literally created employment, if used correctly, it is the perfect repository of data when you are looking for info on a person. Wasn’t it only a few months ago that Facebook profiles were being snooped and scrutinized for details on potential employees which are usually hidden for the sake of an image?

I actually see these two platforms working in perfect harmony with each other. Facebook holds all the details (made publicly available) about a person’s social life, and LinkedIn holds information about their professional life. Bring these two together, and you have your identity completed to share with others. There’s no point in comparing the two, and actually blasting the F8 platform. They both do their job well. It’s how one uses the data that makes the difference.