At Ad:tech09 in Sydney I participated in a panel discussion with Ross Dawson, Chris Saad and Danny Housseas which explored the opportunities and challenges of data portability. It affirmed for me that the data portability principle is just too academic. It seems that most people just don’t get it.

This is a problem because I believe that the issue of data portability is one of the biggest problems for us to solve on the web today.

I think it is only possible to grapple with data portability by first thinking about the web as an operating system of enormous storage capacity and processing power. We need to stop thinking about ‘controlling/owning the users’ and start to think about how our apps can work together. Users need that. I need that. And products that don’t support it will not be valued.

If your local operating system would only allow you to open photos with certain applications, or prevented printing out your address book, or would not allow cut and paste of an email address from a message to a document.

If your OS performed like the web today you would say it was broken.

What is the cut and past of the web? How do I give permission for some people to do something with my photos and not others? Do you mind if I import your email address into this new app?

Flickr is a ‘viewer’ application that I use to show my photos to people in other places. I should be able to ‘open’ my photos in another application (another site on the web) to edit them and then save them back into Flickr, or somewhere else.

When I start using a new web product I should be able to bring my friends with me from other social networks (other silos where I manage my mates) and they should be able to easily accept or decline coming with me .. and I’d prefer not to use Facebook Connect to do this. I want a way to do it that some company can’t claim ownership over. That kinda defeats the purpose of me controlling my own data.

So what’s the answer? Do you agree this is a problem?

How do we do a better job of communicating the promise if we get it right?

Here’s some detail on the session.

Data Portability: Usage & Strategies

As an online user, you most likely understand the frustration of having to enter your personal data over and over when registering for online services. The question is, should the web move to an open source format allowing the ability to share and move data from one system to another to enhance you and your customers’ online experience? Sounds like a great idea, but creating an open environment poses definite risks in accessing and using personal data.

In this session our panel of industry experts will discuss:

• An overview of data portability and its pros and cons
• The opportunities and implications of data portability for Consumers, Marketers and Social Media players
• Strategies to move to an ‘open’ environment

Come join the conversation and learn whether moving to an open environment can be beneficial for your organisation.