Data Portability in 2008

What a week! In October, I wrote about Facebook’s openness after they announced their API. In the post I posted three ideas for them to explore:

1. Allow other sites to use the Facebook login, like an OpenID
2. Give the user the ability for Photos, Movies, and Notes to be indexed and searched, or even exported to another website
3. Export user data into Address Book, which automatically updates

Now in 2008, Robert Scoble was caught running a script to export his Friends data for a Plaxo product. Facebook initially kicked him out, but let him quickly back in. That single event probably did not have any effect upon Facebook’s next move (but it was very coincidental!). Facebook and Google joined the DataPortability Workgroup.

As DataPortability states, their mission is, “To put all existing technologies and initiatives in context to create a reference design for end-to-end Data Portability. To promote that design to the developer, vendor and end-user community.” What this means for you and me is that the web’s leaders are coming together to create standards for users to share data which they transport across services. Hopefully at some point this year, we will be able to add Facebook videos to YouTube, or use a Google Image search to find Facebook images! Who knows! But as Bill Gates said at CES, we are entering the “second digital decade”, meaning more connectivity and user-centric. I think DataPortability will be one of the key movements for this to happen, and I am excited to see Facebook and Google joining the party!

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