Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to write a personal note of thanks to this community. We
have all commented and made statements about "Six Months Strong" or
"[Insert big vendor] joins the project]," but in all the excitement I
have not had a chance to share my personal thanks.
As everyone knows by now, this project started as a very small idea by
a small group of individuals who wondered out loud, "Does everyone
know those cool standards could fit together?" -- or "Why not create a
set of best practices for implementing these standards so that all the
implementations just worked" -- or "Could we prove the Web really is
the ultimate social network platform?"
Since that time, the project has had some very high profile wins. The
result: all sorts of challenges and opportunities -- the kind that
comes with rapid scaling.
Challenges like messaging (are these guys all about hype and big
vendors?), governance (who makes the decisions around here?),
definitions (what does "data portability" really mean anyway) and egos
(who the heck is this Chris Saad dude and why is he on TechCrunch and
Read/Write Web so much?).
I am so proud of how, at our early flash points, and in the ensuing
weeks and months, the co-founders, early participants and new faces
banded together to resist the urge to "lock down"' the project. No
smoke filled rooms and exclusivity. Believe me, that would have been
an easy way to go. But the tougher path is proving to be the right
one for us and for our goals. I am proud of how everyone has been so
welcoming of each other and has worked so hard to execute our mission
while building our messaging, community and light-weight governance
model. I am also proud of how much momentum we have continued to
gather.
The resulting opportunities are bright indeed.
We have an opportunity to look back with respect and deference at the
Standards Groups and Lobby Groups who have come before us (many of
whom are still actively working on and lobbying for openness). Without
their amazing ground work and ongoing technical standards work Data
Portability would not and will not be possible.
We have the opportunity to look around and recognize the enormous
potential we have around us. Potential reflected in the conversation
we have helped to shape, in the partners we have managed to invite and
the people who have joined us on the journey. This group has earned a
reputation for being the most diverse, geographically disbursed and
open collaboration projects of its kind. The countries, vendors, and
skill sets represented here is astounding. It even feels like we have
a great gender balance as well.
And we have the opportunity laying before us. A web-wide ecosystem of
inter-operable applications. The beginning of a common data layer for
the web.
At all times we need to be clear, however, that our work is to shine a
light on the others around us who are at the front lines, to encourage
openness and transparency in the community and in the final best
practices and manage the expectations of end-users.
I'd like to thank those who have been supportive of the project from
the beginning. You have made it happen. I am simply the most visible
part of a very, very big team of people who really deserve all the
credit - including YOU. Thank you, too, for your personal support and
friendship. You have made this fun as well!
I'd also like to thank the loyal opposition, the critics and even the
detractors. They have helped us refine our vision and forced us to re-
commit to our vision each step of the way.
I look forward to continuing to work with you all to tighten the bolts
on the wiki, spread the message and work throughly on our first major
deliverable - the DataPortability Technical Best Practices (http://
wiki.dataportability.org/display/dpmain/technical)
Cheers,
Chris Saad
Co-Founder and Chairperson
DataPortability Project
