Data Portability part of a solution to a bigger problem
As part of my new job at Etsy, I’ve been amassing a gigantic list of every idea anyone (customers included) has had on a way to improve Etsy. The point is not to cull from the list a handful of good ideas. Instead, we’re going to look at everything and try and tease out what’s causing people to react the way they are. Many times people will ask for a feature that solves an immediate problem, but they’re taking aspirin, not making a lifestyle change. You can get yourself into trouble doing this if you’re not careful – “quick, let’s redesign EVERYTHING” – but it can be very instructive.
I think Data Portability is a symptom of a bigger problem, which is that people expect to be able to project their world view onto their Internet experience. I can interact with my social network in real life without restriction, so why not on the internet? There are so many other examples beyond Social Network data. To be fair, I think Data Portability is great. I was a supporter of it at Amazon, and I really appreciate the work Chris Saad and folks are doing. I even lurk in the Data Portability google group and read the threads. So this is not a shot at them.
Umair Haque writes the Bubblegen blog which is inspiring once you decipher what he’s saying. At first glance, he can occasionally sound like a raving genius, creating large gaps in his logic where it clearly makes sense to him but no one’s following. But his core message has been the same for years, way before anyone else understood – help your users create value for themselves and the network effects will reward you. Think on that. This is not about sucking every last penny out of them via precise ad targeting. This is about good beating evil. His writing had a big influence on me and my decision to join Etsy.
So this is how I see Data Portability fitting in. Ignore, for the moment, the libertarian Silicon Valley echo chamber where everyone is demanding their data. The average person doesn’t care which company stores their data. The thought never crosses their mind. Instead, it’s all about what I can do today and what do I want to do tomorrow. People want their social network data consumed by other applications because it creates value for them. People want their attention data – well, actually they have no idea what “attention data” means – so that the experience they carry in their heads as memories are reflected back into the services they use. People want their purchase data from Amazon piped into Netflix (and vice versa) so that each site stops recommending the same damn movie.
Data Portability, of course, enables all of this, which is why it’s such a great project. But let’s not delude ourselves into thinking mainstream America is concerned about some evil corporation having a stranglehold on their data. All that matters is if people leverage the data in their minds within their computing experience.
Tomorrow I’ll write about the need for a universal identity reference service. Facebook began it with “List the people you reference in your post” and Twitter continued it with @username. It’s brilliant and has far-reaching effects, I think.
For now, have a good night.