So, we all know the story…

Robert Scoble tried to extract his personal social graph information from Facebook and Facebook suspended his account.

Robert has since joined the DataPortability.org workgroup to support our work to create free, open and standards based support for data sharing between services.

I’d now like to formally invite Facebook to join the DataPortability Workgroup.

This is both a business opportunity and a cultural and ethical imperative for them. Open is not just a buzz word. It means that you play nice with others. Even others that are not inside your walled garden. By announcing their support, Facebook has an opportunity to reclaim their place as the most open social network around - and it’s great for users too.

If you notice by looking at the roster of contributors to DataPortability, there are already individuals involved who also happen to work for Yahoo, Myspace, Seesmic, Disney, BBC, NineMSN, Dow Jones/Fox and others. It’s time for Facebook to join the conversation!

I welcome them to email me at me@chrissaad.com and I will gladly send them an invite to the Google group.

Also, watch the latest video from Scoble on the issue.

Update: Mashable has a poll on the subject
Update: Techcrunch covers it as well

Google’s aquisition of Jaiku is a great indication of Google’s faith in Lifestreaming. Lifestreaming, of course, is an aggregation of your social Attention Data - a rich source of gestures that indicate your interests. Gestures that can be converted to an APML Attention Profile.

Read more about how to convert your Jaiku RSS feed into APML at Marjolein’s great post.

Check out the post over on the Particls blog about Google Reader’s plans for APML support.

From the post:

Steven Ashley suggests that APML support is already on the roadmap:

“Hopefully just because they are no longer in Beta, Google Reader will still continue its fast pace of new feature implementation. Still expected support for 40 different languages and feed recommendation system. In the future support for the proposed Attention Data standard, APML is also expected.”

The recent leak of Google’s plans for its Google Reader product are interesting. Particularly the following point:

Very soon, Google Reader will recommend feeds to the user, based on previous subscriptions and other Google activity.

Every day, more and more applications - particularly Google Apps - are starting to use and abuse your Attention Data.

This is a growing concern that I have been tracking for some time.

From that previous post:

Are you so willing to give up your rights so easily? You are, in effect, saying that you are happy for Google to absorb all your personal data - your digital identity (incidentally your digital identity is quickly becoming a large proportion of your overall identity) - and you’re going to TRUST them to be completely benevolent about it? Forever?

You want no leverage? None? You don’t want any accountability? Ownership? Mobility? Economy? Transparency? Because while I love Google as much as the next person - they are not transparent. And they do not respect your Attention rights.

This brings me to my next point. Economy implies that something (property) has value (in this case your Attention Data and Attention Profile). It also implies that you can transfer your property (and its value). You can sell it and leveraged and do all sorts of fancy things. It also requires multiple participants in an ecosystem.

So to dig deeper into Sam’s original question “Is Google Building the Attention Economy?” the answer is no.

Google is not building the Attention Economy. They are using their huge surface area to try to grab as much of your Attention Data as possible to target and sell ads on TV, Radio, Web and Print. They are increasingly becoming an ‘Attention Aware Advertising Company’.

Another key question now is, if you have an application that displays RSS/ATOM, do you have a Personal Relevancy/Attention Data strategy? If not, your software will quickly become obsolete.

Join the APML workgroup and add Engagd functionality to your feed reader today (as others are) to make sure your feed reading efforts remain relevant (pun intended).