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January 4, 2008

Facebook Invited To Join The DataPortability Work Group

Duncan Riley

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scoble1.jpgYou have to hand it to internet memes, the last 24 hours have been rich with debate, and some of it was even worth while.

It started around this time yesterday when Robert Scoble was banned from Facebook. As Michael noted later in the day, Scoble was testing a new Plaxo feature that exported friend data from Facebook into Plaxo.

Scoble has since had his account reinstated, but not before comparing himself to Gandhi. It’s not a comparison I would have made, and naturally others are having fun with it, but to be fair there is some substance in the comparison, because ultimately supporting open access to data is a positive thing, and passive resistance is an ideal way to go about bringing change.

To finish the day Chris Saad from the DataPortability Work Group has issued an open invitation to Facebook to join with them in working towards open data portability. Representatives from Yahoo, Myspace, Seesmic, Disney, BBC, NineMSN, Dow Jones/Fox and others are already onboard, so they certainly wouldn’t be alone. As social networking further matures in 2008, open access is a cause that may well find favor as people start considering where to contribute online in a saturated and (time wise) finite space.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Friday, January 4th, 2008 at 12:39 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Amit Chowdhry

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:42 am

    ugh–that picture is nast

  2. Robert Scoble

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:43 am

    I realized as soon as I said it that it was a mistake and quickly backtracked if you watched the video. A better case to use? The Boston Tea Party. When we didn’t like what the King was doing to us we threw his tea in the Boston Harbor.

  3. Robert Scoble

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:44 am

    Amit: that picture was taken at a TechCrunch party. I’ll never live it down.

  4. Search◊ Engines Web

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:45 am

    Amazing…, Scoble got so many comments on that blog post and links and diggs, it may wind up being one of his all time highest.

    Even as the first commenter the effect was felt, by others clicking on the username link to visit

  5. Ajinkya

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:46 am

    Hellooo…
    its not Ghandi its Gandhi !!!!

  6. Pratham

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:47 am

    Who’s Ghandi ?

  7. TDavid

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:48 am

    He also compared his definance in respecting a site/service TOS he agreed to in advance to not driving the speed limit. Yeah, and I bet also gives cops the middle finger when he speeds by them. Not.

  8. Duncan Riley

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:48 am

    Ajinkya
    I’d already corrected it before your comment, but thanks none the less.

  9. Ajinkya

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:51 am

    Duncan
    Yeah i noticed that… i click submit and the page refreshes with the correct spelling… :-)

  10. Amit Chowdhry

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:51 am

    hahahaha, i still have yet to get to a TC party, they look wild. its hard being out in the midwest sometimes. how many drinks did u need to be convinced to take a pic like that?

  11. Duncan Riley

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:52 am

    TDavid
    I’ve driven down the 101 before (the main road to the Valley) and I’m convinced that Americans don’t understand the meaning of a speed limit. I was doing 75miles in a 65 zone and I was the slowest person on the road.

  12. Amit Chowdhry

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:57 am

    Also, in defense to the Gandhi analogy, I’m sure that it was used only in the context that Gandhi spoke up for what he believed in.

    Similarly, Scoble spoke up against his ban from Facebook. Technically, he could have used any famous figure that spoke up against something like the Asian Trix Rabbit that decided that he wasn’t going to take crap from the kids anymore:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0y9CGYRMso

    Looking at the amount of time I spend on FB, I’d do the same too. I waste so much time on Facebook that I sometimes feel like the Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons.

  13. TDavid

    January 4th, 2008 at 12:58 am

    Sounds like you did some big city driving, Duncan. They will ticket you for going a few mph over in our area. Rural areas much more stringent, especially in construction and school zones.

    And a lot of cameras are being installed at stop lights to issue tickets for running those.

  14. Duncan Riley

    January 4th, 2008 at 1:13 am

    TDavid
    one of the advantages of driving in the US on an Australian license, it’s hard for them to send the ticket :-)…but I take your point, and it’s the same here, I can get a speed camera fine for doing 3km/h over the limit, complete insane given that the leeway for a speedo in a car is 6km/h.

  15. James Thomas

    January 4th, 2008 at 1:43 am

    I’m all about taking my data with me.

    However, the idea of my friends mining my data and taking it with them is a bit subjective. If it’s for their own use… fine. But if they’re going to be posting my information, even in a private context, to a company… even if it’s deemed private.. fuck that.

    A company could easily slip it into their privacy policy that they reserve the right to advertise to all of your friends, but not you. And forgive me if I don’t trust most businesses.

    SocialGraph is a fucked up concept, and the web 2.0 community is REALLY misusing the term “Open” lately.

  16. Kepex

    January 4th, 2008 at 2:02 am

    Seesmic cited between MySpace and Disney???

  17. Niyaz PK

    January 4th, 2008 at 2:16 am

    :)
    The photo: Huh…%$@^#

  18. Intercon

    January 4th, 2008 at 2:18 am

    Every social network operator should join.. and after all, it’s the user who owns their data, not the service provider..

  19. Allen Stern

    January 4th, 2008 at 3:36 am

    it’s so funny to watch how the tides change so quickly out in SF.

  20. What's Hot Today.com

    January 4th, 2008 at 3:48 am

    That’s hilarious

    http://www.whatshottoday.com

  21. Jurado

    January 4th, 2008 at 4:03 am

    How do you identify a Geek at a nudist colony? Short sleeve tan!

  22. Todd

    January 4th, 2008 at 5:47 am

    As much as I hope to see a positive response to Mr. Saad’s invitation, I am not holding my breath. We need a couple more of these high profile “vendor locks” like what happened to Gandhi…err….I mean Mr. Scoble.

    If you have been the victim of vendor lock, write a post about it on your blog and tag it “gandhiscoble”. Thanks

  23. Darren

    January 4th, 2008 at 5:53 am

    Robert you may never live it down but what about our poor mental scars from seeing it :p

    note to self, keep clothes on at parties in the future…

  24. Mike K

    January 4th, 2008 at 6:02 am

    Robert - it wasn’t the King’s tea. It belonged to the East India Company. The protest was a result of the EIC getting essentially a tax break (on import tariffs) while the rest of the colonies were being…well, taxed without representation.

    So unless there’s some sort of unfair treatment being given to Facebook by the government, hard to see how the analogy works.

  25. Not Gandhi

    January 4th, 2008 at 6:11 am

    I get frustrated when I see anyone comparing themselves to people like Gandhi and other historic figures or events because 99% of the time, the comparison is unbelievably insulting to the historic figure or event.

    Your Facebook profile got closed and you sent an email. This makes you “like Gandhi” or “like the Boston Tea Party”?!

    ‘Net culture sometimes seems so out of touch with history and reality …

  26. JeffC

    January 4th, 2008 at 6:20 am

    Who’s touching him in the picture? Looks like he’s reeling from a cold clammy hand on naked flesh.

  27. Aswath

    January 4th, 2008 at 6:56 am

    At the risk of pedantic and prudishly sensitive to Gandhi, the comparison is false because Gandhi would have declared the immorality of the act he is defying, would not have recanted and promised to obey the law. That is fundamental to civil disobedience.

  28. GYUSZI BACSI

    January 4th, 2008 at 7:12 am

    JeffC: curiosity killed the cat as well, so it is better not to ask too sensitive questions (:
    try to concentrate on the topic even if you like that body ((:

  29. lawrence

    January 4th, 2008 at 7:32 am

    is that a tan line on his arm, good god - look at the contrasts

  30. John Moore

    January 4th, 2008 at 8:29 am

    “I see nip”

  31. EH

    January 4th, 2008 at 11:19 am

    Aswath: Exactly. I see Scoble’s situation more in line with OJ Simpson’s or Scooter Libby’s. Guilty-but-free.

  32. xenbet

    January 4th, 2008 at 11:28 am

    id be ashamed to have a pic like that on the net.

    why are most of these bloggers lards ?? with pale complections

    ——
    http://www.xenbet.com

  33. Ben Metcalfe

    January 4th, 2008 at 10:52 pm

    Hi Duncan

    There is an important inaccuracy in your post that I would be most grateful if you could correct ASAP .

    You write:

    “Representatives from Yahoo, Myspace, Seesmic, Disney, BBC, NineMSN, Dow Jones/Fox and others are already onboard,”

    this is actually a miss-quote from Chris Saad’s original piece:

    “If you notice by looking at the roster of contributors to DataPortability, there are already individuals involved who also happen to work for Yahoo, Myspace, Seesmic, Disney, BBC, NineMSN, Dow Jones/Fox and others.”

    None of the companies you have mentioned have any involvement with DataPortability.org. As Chris writes DP.org is supported by individuals who just happen to have employers or clients that are the companies listed. Their personal involvement does not equate to backing by their employer/client.

    As the contributor to DataPortability.org who has both Seesmic and MySpace as clients I need to stress that neither of my clients have anything to do with the DP.org initiative and that my involvement with the project is entirely separate from that of my professional client work.

    From a media training perspective, I don’t think it was the best way Chris could have constructed his sentence to convey his point, but nevertheless there has been a significant miss-quote here that I would be most grateful if it could be corrected asap to avoid any further confusion.

    Many thanks

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