This is a total 180… I always thought of Facebook as this intentionally closed off system designed to lock out third-party widgets in order to preserve the consistency of the user experience.

Not anymore, according to TechCrunch, Facebook is now ready to become the uber-platform with unprecedented access via a remarkably open developers’ API:

The API would allow, for example, a third party to recreate Facebook Photos, the most used photo application on the web. Users could then remove the default Facebook Photos and install the third party version instead.

I think this is a real game-changer. Facebook is definitely the most interesting company out there right now, and it’s only going to get more exciting as innovation and new features have now become crowd-sourced.

I wonder how Facebook will manage their data asset in this world of open access. Since developers can now build widgets that leverages all of a given user’s data in Facebook, what’s to stop the develops from sending that data back to a home server and storing it? I think it would be incredibly valuable to know the structure of the social network at major universities. Widget makers like Slidea and RockYou, and even consumer brands with digital media campaigns, like Red Bull, can now figure out who the super-nodes are at various universities, and they could use this data to market directly to key influencers. Wild!