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Myspace and Facebook make Data Portability moves - lots more work to be done

Added on by Chris Saad.

In the last couple of days data portability and the DataPortability project have been all over the headlines. That's always a good thing for the cause of open standards and interoperability. Each announcement has been a small and long-overdue step towards making social network profile data available to other sites in some sort of digestible way.

First, MySpace announced their 'Data Availability' push with a series of launch partners, and then, seemingly in response, Facebook announced 'Facebook Connect' which is an iteration on their existing APIs to allow 3rd parties to connect and access their user data.

Both moves have rightly been attributed as 'Data Portability' plays - but neither of them are true 'DataPortability' implementations... yet.

They are each proposing and implementing their own specific mechanisms, policies and technologies for moving the data around, and none of them are allowing true two way sync.

Over the coming months it will be our job, at the DataPortability project, to further refine and ratify the DataPortability Best Practices to provide a complete, end-to-end guide that Facebook, Myspace and others can follow. Once properly implemented, all applications on the web will essentially become part of a friction free inter-operable and two way data layer based on open standards.

It will be up to bloggers and other media outlets to keep the pressure on these players to continue to improve their offerings to achieve true compliance based on community recommendations made through the DataPortability project.

I look forward to the journey and further discussing these issues at the Internet Identity Workshop on Monday May 12 and the 2nd Data Sharing Summit on Thursday May 15.

Decentralized Microblogging - Twitter 2.0?

Added on by Chris Saad.

Michael Arrington has just published a post about how a decentralized Twitter might work called "Twitter can be liberated". Much of it was based on a discussion we had on the subject and how RSS, XMPP and Microblogging software could create a decentralized Twitter (Much like Wordpress, Blogger and LiveJournal are decentralized software platforms for traditional blogging).

The key component would be an easy bridge between RSS and XMPP. We actually already have such a technology in our labs called 'SyncStream'

This new model would, by necessity, push a lot of the work to the edge where aggregators would need to manage subscriptions, blocks and @ reply tracking. I think, however, that this is an opportunity rather than a problem.

The idea is discussed pretty thoroughly on the post so I wont rehash it here. It's a fascinating notion, one my team and I have been kicking around for more than a year.

I wonder if it will gain traction...

Techcrunch donates $6,625 to DataPortability

Added on by Chris Saad.

As you may have heard on Techcrunch today, Michael Arrington, Heather Harde and the TechCrunch team are donating USD$6,625 to the DataPortability project. I'd like to add a public thanks to them for this kind gesture in help us to host and encourage the data portability discussion and the eventual DataPortability set of Best Practices.

Since the announcement we have some additional offers of sponsorship for the project and I will be getting back to you all as soon as I can.

We will be setting up a legal entity and a council to decide how the money is used. As usual we will be keeping everything as transparent as possible and making sure the community has maximum input.

Gadgets vs. Apps - Google App Engine

Added on by Chris Saad.

David Recordon has a very clever observation over on the O'Reilly blog about the Google App Engine potentially marginalizing both OpenSocial and Facebook Platform. I think he might be right. Long term, the goal of most App developers should not be to develop gadgets in containers, but rather to build first class applications on the ultimate platform of all, the Web.

With tools like Amazon Web-Services and Google App Engine reducing infrastructure and scale costs even further, an emerging data interoperability layer via DataPortability and an increasing desire to add social functionality to most apps and services, the future looks bright.

I look forward to the day when I can use my best-of-breed applications (such as Flickr for photos - and now video!, Twitter for status updates, Ma.gnolia for Bookmarks and Google Docs for document collaboration) all backed by my personal, universal address book. My personal social network.

Combine everyone's address book together and you get what you get is what Tim Berners-Lee calls the Giant Global Graph.

The opportunity for Myspace, Facebook and other large social networks? Continue to provide a simple user experience for the mainstream in the mean time, and evolve quickly into an Identity Provider and social hub of the future.

I've been called to Testify!

Added on by Chris Saad.

I've been called to testify for the prosecution in the Techcrunch case against Facebook. Apparently Michael Arrington wants me to testify that automated endorsements based on buy gestures are unethical and illegal. This will be tricky for me since I also work with Facebook on the DataPortability Project. But I will try my best to represent the facts as I understand them.

I won't be able to post on this matter again until the case is closed.

You're Invited! Data Sharing Workshop April 18th and 19th

Added on by Chris Saad.

Hi everyone, I'd like to invite you to the Data Sharing Workshop on April 18th and19th and the Data Sharing Summit on May 15th.

Both events are part of an ongoing collaboration with DataPortability.org, which we hope to evolve into a larger-scale Data Portability conference in the near future.

Our primary goal is to provide a gathering space for everyone to worktogether to build consensus around and get adoption of emerging dataportability standards. We know the timing is tight, but we also know there is a lot of momentum, and we want to move it forward with these two highly-interactive events.

The Data Sharing Workshop (April 18 and 19) As a first step, the Workshop will provide a gathering space for different groups to have in-depth discussions about emerging data sharing standards and initiatives, and continue ongoing work by establishing Action Items to be carried out at subsequent events.

he Workshop will be held at the SFSU downtown campus in cooperation with the SFSU Institute for the Next Generation Internet.

Please make sure you add it to your Upcoming watch list Please make sure you add it to your Upcoming attending list http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/450853/

The Data Sharing Summit (May 15) The Summit will take place a month later, providing enough time to further develop the ideas discussed at the Workshop while still being able to track progress. With the larger venue, participants from the Workshop will be able to share their ideas with a broader audience.

The Summit will be at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Ca, immediately following the Internet Identity Workshop, allowing those in the user-centric identity community to participate in the Summit.

Please make sure you add it to your Upcoming watch list Please make sure you add it to your Upcoming attending list http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/452397/

Sign up You can register for both of these events at http://eventbrite.datasharingsummit.com.

Additional information is available on the Data Sharing Summit Wiki.

About (un)conferences As with the previous summit, which was facilitated by Kaliya Hamlin, aka "Identity Woman" [http://www.identitywoman.net/], the upcoming event will follow the open space (un)conference [http://unconference.net] format. The agenda is created on the first day of the event, allowing everyone to participate in the discussion.

Since 2005, Kaliya has been facilitating the Internet Identity Workshop and has received considerable praise for helping achieve real results, including the incredible progress of OpenID and other user-centric identity projects. Based on the success of IIW, we have decided to use a similar model for the Data Sharing events.

Get Involved We need help with promoting these events and ask that you blog about both events. We are also looking for volunteers and sponsors to help support this community, so that we can create real value for everyone involved.

To make the event accessible to a broader range of participants, attendance fees are relatively low. All three days are $200.00 for regular attendees and $140.00 for independents and start-ups. These fees will cover approximately half the cost. Sponsorship support is needed to cover the remaining half.

If you have any questions about any of these events, or would like to get involved as a volunteer or sponsor, please contact Laurie Rae at laurierae@datasharingsummit.com

What have you done for me lately?

Added on by Chris Saad.

Often in the DataPortability project we get asked "What have you guys actually done?" I often times find the question both amusing and confusing, while other times I can understand where the question comes from.

The DataPortability project received a lot of attention very quickly and very early in its life and it left some people asking 'Why?'.

The answer, however, can be quite multifaceted and complicated.

The first thing I do is encourage people to look at the DataPortability Road Map.

It clearly maps out our plan and shows that we have actually successfully completed 2 out of the 5 planed phases.

  1. Foundation (done)
  2. Invitation (done)
  3. Investigation (underway)
  4. Design
  5. Evangelize

Foundation is self-explanatory - but invitation is a very interesting step along this long journey.

We have invited the industry to start a conversation about data portability. And I think we have been quite successful in doing just that. It is now one of the most visible topics at most industry conferences, dev groups and board meetings. The mere existence of the project and the phrase has given people a handle from which to drive the conversation.

The result has been actual and practical. It has resulted in an acceleration of every discussion and implementation around openness and standardization.

This is indeed a journey of a thousand steps, but by defining our destination (as DataPortability has begun to do) we have helped the community shift from a steady walk to a jog. Next comes the run.

But we can't rest now - there is still a lot of work to do. We need to execute on the rest of our plan. We need to put aside our agendas, egos, doubts and fears and embrace this new, broader conversation.

Next, I remind people that, as a project, the DataPortability group is currently executing on Phase 3 - Research. During this phase we are speaking to each standard community about their relevant technologies and contributions to understand how they might fit into any future best practice document or documents. If we are not speaking to you yet, please drop me a line. After that, comes the Documentation phase. But not before.

The journey is indeed long - there are indeed a thousand steps to come - maybe more. Some of us are focusing on making shoes, others have given us iPods to keep us entertained, and others still are drawing directions in the sand. It will take all kinds of efforts and all kinds of people to arrive at our destination.

Are you helping? Join a standards group, write some code, or join the DataPortability project!

Of course, there's another, shorter answer. "Just you wait and see..."

Microsoft Acts on DataPortability

Added on by Chris Saad.

Today Microsoft takes another big step towards Data Portability by announcing their Contacts API for their Live Platform. To quote John Richards, Director of Live Platform (an active participant in the DataPortability project) from the press release:

"To tackle the issue of contact data portability it is important to reconcile the larger issue of data ownership.  Who owns the data, like email addresses in a Windows Live Hotmail address book?  We firmly believe that we are simply stewards of customers’ data and that customers should be able to choose how they control and share their data. We think customers should be able to share their data in the most safe and secure way possible, but historically this openness has been achieved largely through a mechanism called “screen-scraping,” which unduly puts customers at risk for phishing attacks, identity fraud, and spam. Now with the Windows Live Contacts API, we have provided an alternative to “screen-scraping” that is equally open but unequivocally safer and more secure for customers. "

This is another strong example of how committed Microsoft is to data portability in general and the DataPortability project specifically.

As things take shape in the DataPortability Project, we will have specific recommendations for Microsoft and all other vendors to make sure that their APIs are seamlessly inter-operable with other DataPortability enabled applications.

I am speaking at 'The Next Web' Conference

Added on by Chris Saad.

Good news - I will be in Amsterdam speaking at the Next Web Conference on the 3rd and 4th of April - are you coming? I will also be in London for a few days after the 4th. Here's a bit of info about the conference from the website:

The Next Web Conference is THE European conference for industry thought-leaders, leading web-companies, innovative Startups, visionaries and real Web savvies. This third edition will be held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on April 3rd & 4th, 2008.

Mean what you say, say what you mean

Added on by Chris Saad.

The Google Health Announcement has a few yellow (just before red) flags for me. Marissa Mayer is using language that sounds open, but it isn't. This is the most recent example of this sort of language manipulation and it needs to be clarified. From the announcement about Google Health:

Under a heading named 'Portability', Marissa writes:

"Our Internet presence ultimately means that through Google Health, you will be able to have access and control over your health data from anywhere. Through the Cleveland Clinic pilot, we have already found great use-cases in which, for example, people spend 6 months of the year in Ohio, and 6 months of the year in Florida or Arizona, and will now be able to move their health data between their various health providers seamlessly and with total control. Previously, this would have required carrying paper records back and forth."

It seems to me that Marissa is using the word 'Portability' to invoke the concept of Data Portability.

Data Portability is not about access to your data from any Internet connected device. Rather, Data Portability is about using established best practices so that users can bring their data with them and, more importantly, share or export that data back out.

Her post does not explicitly deal with the question of best-practice data interchange between various health record systems - only that their platform strategy will allow you to connect to (some?) services and tools. Will these connections be proprietary and lock us into a Google Health enabled record keeping system? Or will they be based on common Data Portability best practices?

I'm nominated for the 30under30

Added on by Chris Saad.

I just got this email from Antihill Magazine:

Dear Young Entrepreneur,

A friend, colleague or fan of your work recently nominated you for Anthill Magazine's 30under30 Awards, a national awards program designed to recognise and encourage young Australian entrepreneurs.

Details of your nomination are below, including th name of the generous person who nominated you for this awards program.

Cool!

If you'd like to nominate me you can do so on the Antihill website!

Some challenges in current DataPortability trends

Added on by Chris Saad.

In the last couple of weeks there have been a number of very positive steps forward for Data Portability in general and the DataPortability Project specifically. These include wins by the OpenID Foundation, the IC report, the DataPortability Report and others.

A couple of trends, though, are causing me a little concern and may require a slight course correction before they spin out of control and fragment, rather than standardize, the ecosystem.

1. Tightly coupled OpenID Implementations

On Plaxo right now there is a 'Sign in with YahooID' button. This is effectively an OpenID login mechanism, except to remove the user experience complexity of OpenID, Plaxo has worked with Yahoo to make it easier by creating a direct relationship.

This seems antithetical to the promise of OpenID and could ultimately create another mess of tightly coupled vendor relationships that defeat the purpose of a single sign-on identity that any provider can provide and consume.

A more long term solution must be to improve the generic OpenID user experience or devise an education campaign to help users learn the new login process.

2. Google's Social Graph API

While revealing an enormous usefulness in the existing XFN and FOAF data out on the web, Google's Social Graph API also reveals a weakness in current XFN and FOAF implementations. Many users are not aware when XFN data is included around URLs they enter, much less when the URLs are marked as rel=me.

For example when Twitter asked me for my homepage, I didn't understand that I was asserting a semantic link from Twitter to my blog that Google would later document and carve into stone as part of its implicit global social network in the sky.

As it stands, there is a real concern for user backlash as these APIs start being implemented and users find themselves presented with eerily accurate information about themselves magically appearing on websites without their 'consent'.

Some sort of best practice text and/or iconography is required around fields that will be marked up with XFN - particularly if rel=me will be used to that users can make informed decisions about the type of data they provide and how it might be used. Perhaps even an opt out checkbox is appropriate.

This is probably a job for the Microformat community to dig into and solve. They should probably solve it quickly though.

3. OpenSocial++

As OpenSocial implementations role out, it's becoming clear that there is no such thing as a pure OpenSocial container. Each container includes proprietary APIs and extensions that widget developers may choose to use.

Presumably these exist to differentiate each network and encourage developers to write enhanced apps for the environment.

The problem, though, is that developers need to write defensively for each custom API leading us to a place similar to browser compatibility hell. App developers will need to write and test their apps across every Container and will either have to hard code support for special APIs or keep their apps generic and ordinary.

Is this sustainable? Is there a better way?

If OpenSocial is going to be the Write Once, Deploy Many model for widgets, then the OpenSocial team at Google need to find a way to address this concern quickly.

Microsoft to join DataPortability - Where's the beef?

Added on by Chris Saad.

The news today is that Microsoft intends to join the DataPortability Project. So where's the beef? Why are long-time influentials from all these large vendors joining the cause? What are we offering? What are we trying to do? What's in it for them? What do they bring to the table?

Many of these questions are already answered in the Project Charter, on the FAQ page and in the excellent video by Michael Pick. but I thought that since I am getting much of the blame credit for this that I might put it all in context in my own words.

First, I'd like to clarify that DataPortability is not mine. It is an initiative that was co-founded by many people who all believed that something was missing from the existing Identity/Data/Standards landscape. Something very small, but very important.

A story...

A message. A simple rallying cry for the mainstream that would:

  1. Explain the problem in simple terms
  2. Help contextualize existing efforts to solve it
  3. Encourage inter operable adoption by users, vendors and developers

That's exactly what DataPortability brings to the community. A neutral, community driven forum in which standards groups can champion their technology in the context of a solution, vendors can raise their concerns and get answers and end-users can get a easy, safe and secure experience.

So back to the original question. Where's the value?

The value is in the exciting and critically important work that standards groups have been doing for years. It's in the new conversations being encouraged between standards groups and vendors both inside the DataPortability Project and independently 1 on 1. It's in the Action Groups that are bringing diverse people together. It's in the Action Packs we are developing to help tell the story to Executives, Developers, Designers, Bloggers and Vendors. It's in the Technical and Policy Blueprints we are designing to tell the story in a more detailed way and believe it or not, it's in the PR hype of the announcements.

Each announcement - each new member - both large and small - means another voice, and another opportunity to broaden the conversation and apply the sort of grass-roots pressure we all know already exists to create a web of data we can Connect, Control, Share and Remix.

In regard to Microsoft specifically, I welcome their voice in the conversation. Their team has been one of the most transparent and accessible of all the vendors we have spoken to and their products and services touch the lives of almost everyone both online and off.

Please join us Chris

Special thanks to Daniela Barbosa for finding the picture!

Jeremiah Owyang Suggests some deliverables for DataPortability

Added on by Chris Saad.

Jeremiah Owyang is one of those people with a sharp mind and a clear communication style that makes everyone stand up and listen. His input is always welcome and he has posted some great ideas for DataPortability.org. I thought I would respond to them here. I will post his requirements and my comments after each.

1. Charter document: This lists the groups purpose, who’s held accountable, and what we expect to see and goals

We have started a Workgroup Roadmap to ensure that the right documents get created and ratified. So far we have an emerging decision making structure and a path for deliverables.

We also have an emerging 'Agenda' which will be expanded into a Manifesto.

2. Needs: Problem definition document, what exactly is broken?

We are going to start defining Use Cases soon. We also have an emerging set of Design Goals for the DataPortability Technical Blueprint.

3. Plan: A strategy doc that outlines the next steps the group will take to fix the problem, dependencies, phases, and risks.

Again, we have the Roadmap...

4. Calendar: Of regular meetings, and who’s assigned to each problem. Dates that indicate what will be done when.

The dates will be set by the Roadmap. Meetings, at the moment, are not planned. We are discussing things on the Workgroup Forum.

5. Meeting minutes: A regularly published list of notes after each meeting that indicate the progress done by each member

The discussion forum is actually open to the public. Watch the conversation in real-time. This is 2008 people!

6. Document: Body of standards, the rules, and the final output

The main DataPortability deliverables will be the DataPortability Technical Blueprint and a DataPortability Policy Blueprint. These will map out a way for vendors to implement the world's open standards for maximum interoperability.

7. Openness: Public announcements of progress of major milestones

Again, the discussion is open and transparent and the public can watch in real time, and can also participate in the public group.

Members will obviously blog, tweet and shout results from the rooftops.

8. Actual results: our identity portable, safe, managed and controlled by the owners.

This will be up to vendors - and to bloggers, media and users who need to choose vendors who respect their DataPortability rights - once the Blueprints are ratified of course.

Can you suggest improvements? Comment here, or join the Public Discussion and start a thread!

Don't forget to read the rest of his post.