Data Portability... take control of your own data

It looks like some of the big players are interested in giving you more control over your data.  You know, all that stuff you put in your profile, your photos, your comments, your friends list, your articles, your links.  Wouldn't it be great if you could be sure that you would never lose that stuff?

Let's say you have a Facebook or MySpace account.  If those services go down, so does your data with them, including your entire history.

Here is another scenario:  You have published all your profile pics etc to Facebook.  Now you want to join MySpace as well.  You currently have to go in and re-upload all your pics along with the rest of your info, if you want to share it on MySpace.  Multiply this by every social space you want to participate in, and it can be a real pain.

DataPortability is here to save the day! 

http://www.dataportability.org/

Google, Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn and many others are joining the group to discuss ways in which they can assist end users in taking control of their own data.

Here are the 7 items at the top of their agenda: "

1. We want sovereignty over the profiles, relationships, content and media we create and maintain. 
2. We want open formats, protocols and policies for identity discovery, data import, export and sync
3. We will provide a Blueprint which will enable Data Portability
4. We intend to invent or re-invent as little as possible
5. We want the Blueprint to be as simple as possible while still being effective
   
6. We plan to promote the Blueprint and have it adopted across as many apps as possible
7. Politics can stay at the door

 "

This could be a really big break for small businesses who are interested in using Social Network Marketing to get the word out about their products.  Currently it could easily take two or three staff members full time to manage multiple profiles across the various platforms.  This could be a real marketing breakthrough.