Today sees the release of the first monthly DataPortability Report. The report is collated by the DataPortability Evangelism Action Group based on feedback and work done by the DataPortability Action Groups and any and all groups engaged in solving the Data Portability problem - particularly standards groups.

The goal of the group is to highlight gains made for the cause, and spotlight failures or holdups that need to be overcome.

We hope these reports will serve as digests for those who want to follow the conversation but don’t have the time to monitor the conversation closely.

Read: DataPortability Report #1 - 30th Jan 08

Particular thanks must go to Marjolein, Elias, Daniela and the whole EAG team for putting it together.

Comments are welcome on the page.

I’d personally like to welcome Dries Buytaert (Drupal), Tariq Krim (Netvibes) and Scott Kveton (MyStrands) to the DataPortability.org Workgroup.

I have also posted a DataPortability Roadmap Draft. I welcome feedback.

Time to create some structure for the newcomers and get some work done!

I’d personally like to welcome Matthew Rothenberg (Flickr), Blain Cook (Twitter) and Steve Ganz & Jim Meyer (LinkedIn) to the DataPortability.org discussion.

To quote Steve Ganz on the LinkedIn blog:

“LinkedIn is committed to helping professionals be more productive in their everyday work life. These technologies are among the powerful tools that enable us to do this. So it makes sense that we would support efforts like DataPortability.org and Social Network Portability. We’re happy to share what we’ve learned along the way with the community and look forward to learning from the experience of others.”

I look forward to working with all the individuals involved in the group to tell the technical, political, legal and user experience story of Data Portability.

The announcement is also covered here:

Read/Write Web
Techcrunch
Techmeme
LinkedIn blog

The DataPortability Workgroup is sponsoring an initiative called ‘GraphSync’. Here’s a snippet from the site:

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it…

1. Pick a silo of proprietary social graph data
2. Write some open source code to extract the data
3. Place that data into the open formats listed below.
4. Link to the code repository on the DataPortability Wiki.
5. Win the love and admiration of a grateful community

So the idea is to build something much like the LinkedIn/Facebook/Spock ‘Import your contacts from Gmail’ feature in an open-source way. Instead of importing from Gmail, the hope is to get data out of social networks, IM buddy lists and more and store it in open standards.

Jump onto the site, join the google group and get into it. Please don’t forget to re-blog or tweet this to help spread the word.

More at www.graphsync.com

Read/Write Web, probably the most important tech/start-up blog around these days, has declared 2008 the year of Open Data - or as we like to call it, DataPortability.

As Alex wrote here: “The old perception is that closed data is a competitive advantage. The new reality is that open data is a competitive advantage. The likely solution then is to stop worrying about protecting information and instead start charging for it, by offering an API.”

So overall, we think 2008 will be a bumper year for the Open Source movement on the Web. What do you think? What other parts of the Web are ripe for open source initiatives next year?

Looking forward to it!

We prefer the name ‘Data Portability’ because open suggests free of restrictions, but sometimes users want restrictions; privacy for example.

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).

Faraday Media is pleased to announce the alpha release of Engagd.com.

The highlights:

• Engagd is the first ever standards based, open Attention Platform. An Attention API.
• Engagd turns Lifestreams into APML.
• Engagd uses APML to create ranked/filtered feeds.
• Engagd allows users to subscribe to filtered feeds in any standard feed reader to help with information overload.
• Engagd is for developers of apps and mashups and savvy early adopters. It is not a consumer product.

Digging deeper:
Engagd represents a significant milestone for the Attention Economy. It allows developers and early adopters to convert Lifestreams, Clickstreams and other forms of Attention Data into APML (Attention Profiling Markup Language).

Once created, the APML data can be used to rank and filter RSS feeds or submitted to other sites and services to help create a more personalized Internet experience.

At present, propietary Websites and Applications quietly collect and trap Attention Data about users, often times using it without their knowledge or explicit consent.

Engagd represents the first open-standards based Attention Platform designed to empower users to take control of their personal Attention Profiles. Engagd also allows developers to quickly and easily add Attention Awareness to their applications and mashups using a simple set of APIs.

Engagd uses OpenID for authentication and APML for Attention Profiles.

Faraday Media hopes by contributing this platform to the fabric of the Internet, we will encourage a more interoperable and open way of creating, sharing and applying Attention Profiles.

Joining us in this launch are Dandelife, Cluztr with iStalkr integrating soon. They have each integrated the API into their applications to help users create APML with one click.

Emily Chang, who has been a great champion of Lifestreams, has also created her own APML file simply by logging on and adding her Lifestream feeds to Engagd itself.

About Faraday Media
Engagd is owned and operated by Faraday Media. Faraday was founded by 2 ‘Twenty Something’ Australian entrepreneurs.

Faraday Media focuses on helping users deal with information overload by creating tools that generate a highly personalized view of worldwide information and entertainment media. The company has been in operation since July 2006 (product development started earlier in January 2006). It is currently angel funded.

The company has also been an active contributor to the community founding the APML and Media 2.0 workgroups and open sourcing some of its software.

About Cluztr
Cluztr is a social browsing platform that lets users share their clicks with their friends, meet new people and discover sites that relate to them, their friends and their interests. Users can find out where their friends are online, follow them around the Internet and discover the most popular places on the web based on real-time rankings of the web’s most active sites. By leveraging each user’s attention profile, Cluztr can make personalized recommendations, connect users who share similar tastes, provide custom web content streams, and much more.

About Dandelife
Dandelife is a social network built around the telling of one’s life stories. Dandelife helps people create and share personal biographies with friends and family.

Further Reading

• Visit the Engagd Website
• Read more about the Engagd API
• Read more about APML
• Read more about Faraday Media

Coverage

Coverage has already started…

• Mashable
• Techcrunch