Forget Facebook
May 16, 2008
Debating Facebook’s data portability move (Facebook Connect) is like debating AOLs web strategy back in the day. Their strategy is clearly to create a rarefied ecosystem where users (read: facebook) are in complete control of the ‘approved’ content and interactions. With this in mind, it is clear that Facebook is not the first, best platform in which to design, implement or debate Data Portability.
Debating Google’s data portability move (Friend Connect) is like debating the Netvibes universal widget platform. It is not data portability in the sense that the DataPortability project has defined it. It is a platform that translates existing proprietary implementations into it’s own unified proprietary implementation to enable social widgets to run in more places.
MySpace’s data portability move (Data Availability) is actually the closest play to data portability as defined by the DataPortability project. It proposes to allow 3rd party sites to access the users personal data using open standards extracted from the page (using microformats and a collection of full XML standards). The terms and conditions about caching, however, also bring it in conflict with the philosophies of the DataPortability project.
So as stated before, none of these plays are true ‘DataPortability’ implementations. But they are important first steps. They are the first shots across the bow to the industry that a data portability battle is coming. In fact it has started. Are we going to let it shake out like the IM wars? Or are startups, second tier players, standards groups, bloggers and users going to rally around and standardize to a totally open, grass-roots alternative?
Are the big players going to evolve their offerings to come in line with the rest of the world, or are they going to try to dominate (read: lose).
Further, data portability, and DataPortability is not just about social networking data or social networking scenarios. Certainly not social networking as defined by the social contract of Facebook. It might even be true that Facebook is a culturally bad fit for the DataPortability ecosystem. DataPortability is about a different social contract – a contract more closely resembling the one found in the email address book.
My address book is my own. When you email me, or when you communicate with me, you are revealing something about yourself. You define a social contract with me that means that I can use your information to contact you whenever and however I like – I could even re-purpose my address book for all manor of other things.
If, however, you violate that trust, either directly or indirectly, you break the social contract and I will tend to not deal with you again. We can not perfectly engineer these sorts of contracts into systems – we can try, but in the end social behavior will be the last mile in enforcing user rights.
Also, the dichotomy between who ‘owns’ the data is false. In my mind there is shared ownership. While you use a service, it has a shared custodianship of the data. By giving the service your data you’re getting something else in return – utility. In many cases free utility.
You personally, however, have shared (and overriding) ownership over your data. This has been declared as universally true by all the vendors I’ve spoken to.
The question is not one of ownership though, it’s one of control. If you own your data but can’t control it as you choose then ownership is a moot point. Further, the question is not one of if you own it, but rather how much of it you own.
For example, do you own your friends profile data since you have access to it via the social tool you are using? Or have they only granted you access within that social context and under that social contract. These considerations blur the analogy of the purely personal address book.
In this case, there is no correct, default answer. The answer must come from an old saying – “Your rights end where my rights begin”. That is, your friends need an additional options when ‘friending’ you. A checkbox will probably be required that states ‘Allow this contact to use my data elsewhere’.
The act of ‘friending’ will also need to take on more meaning and ‘grouping’ friends will become important. It will evolve, for most of us, and in most applications, from a popularity contest to a carefully curated address book of people we actually care about.
Filed in dataportability, Technology
Tags: dataportability, facebook, google, media 2.0, myspace, opinion, social networking
May 16, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Well said Chris!
DP has so many nuances that make it a tough thing for the average person to understand… I’m glad you’re fighting so hard for companies to do the right thing with the social-stream eddies of “my/our” data contained within their db’s.
May 16, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Viva la dataportability!
May 16, 2008 at 5:07 pm
As for ownership maybe we should talk about a license to use my data for certain things. I should be able to revoke that license and the service should then delete my data again.
I also would like to see grouping of friends into categories like business, friends, family etc. (but user definable) and being able to say “my friends should be able to see me on network X regardless of what my name/identity is there”. I am just not sure if such a thing is possible in a world where data is stored everywhere. Some master server (a structure like openid maybe) might be needed or at least helpful.
I also see some “privacy is dead” statements coming up here and there and think this is a bit troublesome. I wouldn’t like to give up that fast. Instead I would like to see some discussion of a framework which can ensure privacy.
There of course will always be methods to cricumvent this but they then violate that license.
September 14, 2009 at 9:08 am
Thanks.
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February 26, 2014 at 8:06 pm
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November 17, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Privacy isn’t dead, but gossip is more lively. Whenever you tell your friends something they’re going to use it in whatever way they see fit. Privacy is about choosing your friends and determining which of them can see what you produce.
May 16, 2008 at 5:23 pm
[…] on his blog, Chris sees Facebook Connect, Google’s Friend Connect and MySpace’s Data Availability […]
May 17, 2008 at 1:50 am
[…] the call, but failed to take a leadership position in the debate (he did, however, weigh in with a blog post on the subject before the call). Their influence may be […]
May 17, 2008 at 2:17 am
[…] Me: Users need an additional check box when friending each other ‘You may move my data to other applications’. The big vendors trying to keep control for as long as possible is to be expected. Startups, second tier social networks, non ’social networking’ sites will ultimately implement first, and the big vendors will compete themselves towards open. […]
May 18, 2008 at 4:49 pm
[…] the call, but failed to take a leadership position in the debate (he did, however, weigh in with a blog post on the subject before the call). Their influence may be […]
May 18, 2008 at 8:45 pm
[…] bei einem Wechsel problemlos mitnehmen zu können (=Data Portability). Experten wie Marc Canter, Chris Saad oder Dare Obasanjo beweifeln allerdings, dass die großen Player eswirklich ernst damit […]
May 20, 2008 at 12:11 am
[…] Saad, head of the DataPortability Project, weighs in on last week’s announcements from MySpace, Facebook, and Google of new data-sharing services. Saad […]
May 20, 2008 at 12:21 am
[…] Saad, head of the DataPortability Project, weighs in on last week’s announcements from MySpace, Facebook, and Google of new data-sharing services. Saad […]
May 23, 2008 at 12:41 pm
‘Moot’ point, not ‘mute’.
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[…] – bookmarked by 4 members originally found by danielgianni on 2008-07-26 Forget Facebook https://chrissaad.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/forget-facebook/ – bookmarked by 4 members originally […]
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[…] This is a follow up to my ‘Forget Facebook’ post last year. I don’t mean to pick on Facebook, but their first mover status provides a […]
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The Socknet is a developing protocol for a social network comprised of disassociated websites. It is being developed with exactly the goal that you mentioned: control of your own data. In this system, if you don’t like the practices of the people hosting your data, you can just open up your own with whatever privacy rules you like and still connect to friends on other systems. (Of course, no one can control what your friends do.)
It’s not off the ground yet, but the protocol has recently gone public at socknet.net.
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December 31, 2009 at 5:16 pm
[…] Forget Facebook « Paying Attention. I haven’t read this article, but it seems interesting, as does the site the author references, dataportability.org. From the little I read, though, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a little grandstanding going on.. […]
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