MySpace announced its "Data Availability" initiative this morning -- a service the company says is the first stepping stone toward its larger data portability plan.
The call was headed by Chris
DeWolfe, CEO and co-founder; Amit Kapur, COO; and Jim Benedetto,
SVP of technology, who described their excitement over MySpace's role in creating a more dynamic, social Internet.
With the Data Availability initiative, MySpace users will be able to share their profile content throughout the Internet. What this means is, eventually, rather than re-creating profiles across the Web, users will be able to port their profile data onto each new Website and social service they use. "Your personal
online social profile will become your Internet address," said DeWolfe.
The initiative is being built around open standards and is currently deploying OAuth, an open protocol that allows secure API authentication. "We feel open standards are key to a Web without islands," said Benedetto. "Today MySpace is no longer an independent island of data on the Web."
The execs assured us that users will be able to manage how data
is made
available through a centralized location on the site. Data that users can make available include
basic personal information, photos, videos, and their Friends lists.
"Now users can update their profiles on MySpace and dynamically share
that information on other sites they care about," said Kapur. Currently, those
sites include Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), Twitter, Photobucket, and eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY), but the execs said
they'll be adding more to their roster in the future.
While the execs hailed this as the initiative that's going to change the structure of the Internet, it, of course, triggers some concerns over private data. As yet, there's no reason to throw our hands in the air screaming about privacy invasions, as this -- unlike Facebook's Beacon the First -- is an opt-in program that allows users to control whether or not to start or stop sharing their data.
However, when prodded about whether the participating sites will be able to run advertisements based on user data, DeWolfe side-stepped the question, instead saying, "The thing MySpace gets out of this is we're able to promote a more open and social Internet... As the largest social
network, we believe the more open and social the Internet becomes the better it is
for MySpace." MySpace, or MySpace's revenues? Time will determine that when the service rolls out in the coming weeks.
This rollout will also determine if we as users are as jazzed about data portability as the Web Gods are telling us we are. Some of us may simply prefer to manage our individual identities across the Web on our own -- tedious as it may be.
If MySpace is the king of the social networks, aren't they acknowledging that they are not truly the big dog on the block or the only game in town with this data portability factor?
After all, how many social networks does one truly need to participate in to be considered a web savvy butterfly? How much time does it truly save to leverage the info from one site to another, and doesn't that presuppose that other social network sites have the same mindset or end goal in mind?
Doesn't this sort of reveal that the social network site is truly in it for them, and not just so that you can stay connected with your network of friends?
The ulterior motive must be seen here. This is definitely about revenue and not an effort to save me time by me leveraging the meager amount of information that my personal data represents versus the weight of the internet!
Does this actually create a problem for social networking sites in that they will have to have a matching infrastructure in order to participate? Or is MySpace offering to be that matchmaker themself?
In any case, a very interesting development in the social world. Thanks for bringing it to light. Meanwhile I will tediously manage my personal data. I think that is a far better way for the moment. Thanks for sharing your meeting with us.
I think only time will tell how well this really works. Supposedly, the user will be able to determine exactly what data is shared and with whom. MySpace says it will give the user complete control over which data is shared where and it will enable the user to revoke sharing privileges if he/she decides not to share anymore.
However, in truth, the social networking sites shouldn't want data portability. They shouldn't want to be able to let go of the data they're storing for users. So obviously they're getting something out of this besides the warm and fuzzy feeling associated with living in an open Internet. Based on the conference call, I suspect this will allow MySpace to boost its ad revenues.
The benefit for the user is supposed to be that the entire Web knows you without your having to enter information. Depending on the user, this could turn out to be a really good or a really bad thing. I'm still skeptical. I think all of your questions are valid and, once we really start with data portability, we're going to find our data popping up in unintentional areas. It would be very annoying to allow for data portability only to have to go from site to site to set specific privacy settings. We may not be entirely ready for this shift.
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