SmoothSpan Blog

Facebook is following the only viable strategy open to them, and one I immediately had suggested on reading about Scoblegate.  What I said in my original post was this:

These folks as well as Facebook users couldn’t hope for a better poster child (than Scoble) to help unlock Facebook, and that means Facebook is stuck.  At best they could agree to restore Scoble if he (and others) agree never to do it again.  They will come off looking like lame lock-in artists if they pursue that path.  The smarter move would be to announce they’re working on their own portal for downloading your social graph, restore Scoble, and warn that you will be suspended if you try illicit means to get at your data, but that eventually it will be made available to you via official channels. 

And so, as many bloggers are reporting, Facebook, Google, and Plaxo have announced they’re sending representatives to the Data Portability Workgroup.  Scoble’s response?

Oh, I guess that means we’ll soon be able to import Facebook’s contacts into other systems like Gmail and Outlook?

Will they guarantee not to kick people off who are trying to make their data truly “portable?”

Interesting!

There’s still a long road ahead and some serious lock-in while this group decides what Data Portability should mean.  Microsoft, and others, are famous for joining these things and then not really following through.  At least 3 of the major combatants have joined, making it harder to play the “competing standards bodies” delay tactic.

If you care about the issue, make sure Facebook knows it has to follow through!

Related Articles

David Recordon sounds skeptical about whether Facebook will follow through…

LinkedIn, SixApart, and FlickR People follow suit by joining the Data Portability Workgroup.  LinkedIn was a big missing piece, so I’m glad to see them joining.  Hey, it’s working!

Dare Obasanjo:  Principles are nice but working code is even better.