Does node order have meaning in a JSON describing the Lightning network graph? LN clients can export their view of the network as a JSON file. For instance, in a file obtained from LND, a channel (edge) is described by this structure:

{
    "channel_id": "555479871492063233",
    "chan_point": "dbd46c11d740d7554454d2aad0520e18eedbc9c5e282d21dd065f275cbbe8380:1",
    "last_update": 1540396105,
    "node1_pub": "028e5a8e86540f703e1f58880d35d1e318a54c27d84ec1edbcde04a78ed4469a1e",
    "node2_pub": "02f6725f9c1c40333b67faea92fd211c183050f28df32cac3f9d69685fe9665432",
    "capacity": "300000",
    "node1_policy": {
        "time_lock_delta": 14,
        "min_htlc": "0",
        "fee_base_msat": "546000",
        "fee_rate_milli_msat": "10",
        "disabled": false
    },
    "node2_policy": {
        "time_lock_delta": 14,
        "min_htlc": "0",
        "fee_base_msat": "1000",
        "fee_rate_milli_msat": "10",
        "disabled": true
    }
}


Does node order have a meaning here? In other words, is node1_pub the one who initially opened the channel?
The nodes are listed in lexicographical order after compressed DER encoding. It is not possible to tell from the public information about a channel who requested to open it.

The ordering is required so that signature verification of a channel_announcement message always passes. If intermediate nodes were able to rearrange the order of information within the message, it would fail verification even though the information is correct.

Additionally, the numerical ordering is used for channel_update messages, as a single bit is used to denote whether the update applies to node1 or node2.