I had an update recently from ex-JBoss dude Shaun Connolly on what's going on at Ringside Networks. Ringside was founded by ex-Jboss, ex-BlueStone middleware business guru Bob Bickel. And if it's interesting enough to get him out of retirement, I figure it's worth paying attention to. The company is still in the early stages, about a dozen employees, mostly coding their brains out, on what they term a "social ap I had an update recently from ex-JBoss dude Shaun Connolly on what’s going on at Ringside Networks. Ringside was founded by ex-Jboss, ex-BlueStone middleware business guru Bob Bickel. And if it’s interesting enough to get him out of retirement, I figure it’s worth paying attention to.The company is still in the early stages, about a dozen employees, mostly coding their brains out, on what they term a “social application server.” The comparison of social networking applications with the early days of Java development is an apt one. It makes sense that there should be some kind of basic infrastructure that enables companies to build these types of applications without having to code everything from scratch as is done today. No doubt, this will put some pressure on FaceBook, Google and others to make sure that they are more open.The product is completely open source and should be GA within another month or two. If you want to build social apps that run across multiple social network sites and on your own site, download the software now and get going. David Skok from Matrix Partners is the initial investor in Ringside and I expect the company will announce other venture investors shortly. Open Source