Facebook is announcing a stronger information sharing feature called “Facebook Connect“:

Facebook Connect is the next iteration of Facebook Platform that allows
users to “connect” their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any site.
This will now enable third party websites to implement and offer even more
features of Facebook Platform off of Facebook – similar to features
available to third party applications today on Facebook.

Facebook lists Trusted authentication, Real identity, Friends Access, and Dynamic Privacy as key features of the new platform. Here are more details at the developer blog.

Although open is very much the key paradigm it is also clear that major social players Myspace and Facebook are working hard to figure out how to make “their” open application “the” open application.