Microsoft takes a big step towards DataPortability

[Chris Saad]

Please spread the word in your own blogs and tweets!
http://chrissaad.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/microsoft-acts-on-dataportability/

[marc canter]

Now its time to make sure that two-way APIs, open formats and compatibility
testing get into place.

If folks are implementing these standards differently - there ain't gonna be
no dataporta - nada.

[Brady Brim-DeForest]

Very valid point Marc.

[Chris Saad]

Of course they will eventually  need to follow the best practices we recommend which will be all about two way interop - but the fact that they *have* apis will make that a much easier process.

Look at the bright side Marc :)

Chris

On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Brady Brim-DeForest <bra...@gmail.com> wrote:

Very valid point Marc.

--
Chris Saad

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[marc canter]

Yes two-way APIs area  good thing

 

But I want to caution you.

 

At no time are these BigCos paying attention or certainly not “following” anything we say or do.

 

They will tolerate, go along with, or shall I say “play along with” this org - but the ONLY reason they’re opening up - is that the tide has turned and it hurts them to NOT open up.  Once they’ve made that decision - they will do whatever they can to manipulate the situation to their own benefit.

 

So notice that Facebook, Bebo, hi5, LinkedIn, etc. are supporting the proprietary Windows Live Contacts APIs.

 

There are no such things as ‘open APIs’ for data portability right now.

 

Do you think Microsoft minds it - if all these social networks support THEIR APIs.  Hell no!

 

The key issue here is tha they allow users to export data as much as import it - and that appears to be so.

 

So lets see how Facebook reciprocates this.  If they allow user’s data to flow into Windows Live Contacts - does that mean they’ll allow it to flow into MySpace, Bebo or PeopleAggregator?

 

---

[Julian Bond]

marc canter <ma...@broadbandmechanics.com> Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:01:39

>Now its time to make sure that two-way APIs, open formats and compatibility
>testing get into place.
>
>If folks are implementing these standards differently - there ain't gonna be
>no dataporta - nada.

So while Google try and grab the gadget market with Myspace and Yahoo,
MS try and grab the Contacts import/export market with Facebook, Bebo,
Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn. With yet another Contacts description markup
language, API and Authentication.

So from the three majors, we now have three Contacts schemas, three APIs
and three authentication systems. None of which are oAuth, FOAF and
vCard.

Then there's Plaxo with another Schema, API and Auth.

Looks like the ID Commons Identity Schema project is going to have their
work cut out.

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Julian Bond E&MSN: julian_bond at voidstar.com M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173
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Glides On Smooth

[marc canter]

and any vendor who can triangulate and support all - will win

(referring to Julian's point.............)

-----Original Message-----
From: dataportabi...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:dataportabi...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Julian Bond
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 3:00 PM
To: dataportabi...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [DataPortability-Public] Re: Microsoft takes a big step towards
DataPortability

[Julian Bond]

I think what we're seeing here is a land grab. The need for APIs and
data import/export has finally hit mainstream and the big players are
now jockeying for position. What's somewhat sad about all this is that
the existing open formats are being pretty much ignored. So we have

User Authentication: AuthSub, OpenID, Cardspace, Facebook

App Authentication: AuthSub, BBAuth, Windows Live ID Delegated Auth,
oAuth and Facebook. Google has said they'll move from AuthSub to oAuth
but the recent Contacts API uses AuthSub.

Contacts Schema and API: Google Contacts API, OpenSocial People API,
Live Contacts API, Plaxo Sync API, Yahoo API (unannounced but used by
LinkedIn)

Gadgets API: Facebook, OpenSocial

So what we have is the Google led Opensocial consortium trying to grab
the Gadget development and Gadget hosting standard. While the MS led
Live Contacts consortium try and grab the Authentication and Contacts
API standard. But this gets confused because OpenSocial was always
supposed to include a RESTful API for contacts and was supposed to use
AuthSub for authentication moving to oAuth. OpenSocial is actually in
the same space as the MS Live Contacts group, it's just less complete.

OpenSocial has more momentum with more players signed up. Some people
like Hi5 are in both camps. MySpace is unilaterally extending the
OpenSocial API but are aware of the dangers of doing this and are part
of the OS Foundation. Facebook is out on the edge in most of this, but
has committed to MS for Contacts.

Any bets on how long this all takes to play out and for the dust to
settle? In the short term there's room for a business built on producing
libraries to hide all these differences. Small and medium sized web
sites are really going to need that, because implementing all of it
takes just too much time/money/resource.

[unodewaal]

What I've found interesting is how I could see my Facebook friends
email addresses when I imported them with the MSN Messenger Live
contacts API:
http://www.unodewaal.com/2008/03/26/microsoft-invites-pull-your-address-data-out-of-fb/

That was supposed to be something you couldn't do right?

I definately agree with you here Julian: there are all these friggin
standards, but they're everyones own standards.

[Julian Bond]

unodewaal <unod...@gmail.com> Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:30:48

>
>What I've found interesting is how I could see my Facebook friends
>email addresses when I imported them with the MSN Messenger Live
>contacts API:
>http://www.unodewaal.com/2008/03/26/microsoft-invites-pull-your-address-
>data-out-of-fb/
>
>That was supposed to be something you couldn't do right?

Right. But in theory, Facebook is part of the Live Contacts API
consortium and so should be providing this via the API to anyone. Like
Plaxo and Scoble. We'll see.

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Coupons Cannot Be Combined

[Julian Bond]

Julian Bond <julia...@voidstar.com> Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:57:51

>Right. But in theory, Facebook is part of the Live Contacts API
>consortium and so should be providing this via the API to anyone. Like
>Plaxo and Scoble. We'll see.

What's your take on MS Live Contacts and OpenSocial People Data APIs? Is
anyone else going to implement them as data suppliers?