/Opinion/ The data web
30/10/2008 | Filed under Discover > Opinion
We started with a web of documents and moved on to a web of people. We now see the emergence of a web of data, says Chris Saad, co-founder of the DataPortability project
In the first few months of 2008, fuelled by a combination of timing, high-profile bellwether incidents and a series of endorsements of the DataPortability project from key vendors such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft, the concept of data portability reached a critical mass in the early adopter and developer communities. Some of the news even leaked into mainstream publications such as Fortune, the Financial Times and The Washington Post.
So what does data portability really mean and, more importantly, how does it impact on developers? Well, it means that users should be able to log in to a new piece of software, particularly one that’s web-based, and expect that software to automatically understand how to discover, access, retrieve and update the data stored in the other applications they use.
Much of the hard work to achieve data portability has already been done by a long list of technical wizards and advocates, who have been toiling away unappreciated in individual standards groups. These standards include RSS, OPML, Atom, RDF, OpenID, OAuth, APML and microformats.
New opportunities
Just as the standardised PC architecture resulted in an explosion in cheap, interoperable PCs, just as Windows became a de facto standard for GUI apps, resulting in an explosion in new applications, and just as IP resulted in network of networks – the internet – DataPortability is an opportunity to enable a whole set of new applications that will change the way we work and play.
A number of challenges still exist, however. One of these is to create a blueprint for implementing the standards – an expected set of best practices that vendors can implement against for maximum interoperability. Another key challenge is not technology, but policy. Who owns a given piece of data? How do local laws affect an application’s right to share your data with another – even with your permission? If your friend allows you to access their data in a given context or application, does that give you the right to transfer or share that data with other contexts and applications?
Perhaps the last challenge is message. While early adopter communities often understand these concepts, how do we create a story that mainstream users and vendors can embrace? The opportunity now exists to create common ground, inside which the specialised standards groups, legal experts and sociologists can come together to weave a complete and compelling story that vendors and developers can bank on.
The vendors have shown their support of such a conversation by joining the DataPortability.org project. Standards groups are also joining in to explain their work and collaborate on DataPortability’s Technical and Policy blueprints.
The solution itself may take many months, even a year, to develop and ratify. It’ll be longer still for the largest vendors to adopt the blueprints across their product lines. The important thing, though, is to embrace the building blocks that the standards communities have created for us – and to start the push into the mainstream.
The web of data is important for everyone. It’s important for vendors to maintain their relevance and reduce network fatigue. It’s important for developers to understand and implement. It’s important for end-users, who are increasingly experiencing information overload, network fatigue and questions about control and privacy.
The various standards groups continue their deep technical work, the vendors continue to make small gains and the DataPortability project will continue to contextualise their work.
The group is now in a research and outreach phase. Participants are out in the existing standards communities, learning about the work that’s been done to date and summarising it into developer and vendor-targeted documentation. Next comes the storytelling phase and, finally, the implementation by vendors. I encourage you to join the cause and help create the web of data.
Chris Saad is the co-founder and chairperson of the DataPortability project.
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Comments
Ali Reid / 09/11/2008 / 19:58 / http://www.turtle-media.com
Thanks for the article! I like the ideas behind such initiatives as OpenID and so on, but i do wonder at this stage how receptive the average internet user will be to public identification.
Its a young theme, finding its feet on the pages of facebook and flikr.
I think Facebook is an excellent gauge of people's sentiment towards personal information sharing.
