5 comments

• 

  Ben Metcalfe

  5 months ago

  Hey Mathew,
  
  I was disappointed to read your disappointment with the project. I was wondering whether you could elaborate on a couple of your points...
  
  "after all the party favours are handed out and everyone’s finished their MySpace punch, it might be worth noting that this “data portability” initiative still keeps the power very much in MySpace’s hands."
  
  I'm a bit confused by what you mean by this, or to put it another way, how it falls short of your satisfaction. Anyone can consume the data (assuming permission of the user of course), other than being the social network the said user has chosen to use, I'm a little confused as to how 'all the power is in MySpace's hands. The data has to originate and be delegated from somewhere (otherwise how do you control the deletion or alteration of a piece of data?)
  
  Perhaps you could elaborate a little, or lay out an alternative setup that would allay your concerns as I'm not clear what that looks like?
  
  "[MySpace] still get to choose which services can play, since they have to agree to MySpace’s terms of service in order to get access to the API."
  
  Yes there will be a Ts & Cs... again, I'm not sure what you are suggesting? There be no Ts & Cs? I'm not sure how having no Ts & Cs helps users around making sure their data is being handled in appropriate ways (that's one of the areas where Data Portability is doing fine work). MySpace, as far as I can see, are not choosing who gets to have access, other than yes asking data consumers to agree to terms. I don't think that's a show stopper.
  
  Again, really interested to hear your thoughts, esp how this could be implemented differently as I'm somewhat unclear what the proposition you are aspiring to looks like.
  
  (Disclosure: I am a consultant for MySpace on the overall platform project and I am a co-founder of Data Portability)
  reply
• 

  mathewi

  5 months ago

  Thanks for the comment, Ben.
  
  Maybe I'm confused about how it works: If anyone can consume the data
  -- assuming the permission of the user -- then what is the point of
  announcing that Yahoo, eBay, Twitter and so on are part of this deal?
  I assume they're getting something that isn't possible with just the
  regular API. Maybe I'm wrong.
  
  In any case, I'm not saying this is all bad -- far from it. As I said
  in the post, I think it's great that MySpace and other networks are
  opening up their data and allowing it to flow to other services. All I
  was really trying to point out is that this seems primarily designed
  (naturally) to get people to use MySpace for all of their data, and
  allow it to act as a kind of clearinghouse for that data.
  
  I'd much rather have the data myself and let it flow to wherever I
  want, instead of wherever MySpace wants. But maybe that's just me.
  
  Anyway, if I've misunderstood something please let me know.
  reply
• 

  Ben Metcalfe

  5 months ago

  "I assume they're getting something that isn't possible with just the
  regular API. Maybe I'm wrong."
  
  Nope, they're not getting anything that won't be publicly available. I think it's becoming obvious this wasn't messaged clear enough, but then I don't write the press releases.
  
  The only reason for having 'launch partners' is to have someone to test and debug the implementation with and also have the ability to demonstrate the complete value proposition end-to-end (not everyone understands what this is, esp less tech savvy people).
  
  "All I was really trying to point out is that this seems primarily designed
  (naturally) to get people to use MySpace for all of their data, and
  allow it to act as a kind of clearinghouse for that data."
  
  Yeah that's exactly what it is, well at least if the scope of 'all' is social network data. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, it's a reasonable proposition but hopefully will also stimulate other holders of social data to also release their data in interopable formats.
  
  "I'd much rather have the data myself and let it flow to wherever I
  want, instead of wherever MySpace wants."
  
  MySpace won't be deciding where the data goes. That's down to the developers who choose to interop with MySpace and the users who choose to bring their data to the 3rd party.
  
  "having your own data' is an interesting point - if you don't maintain a website (the kind of demographic of myspace users) then it's very hard to 'own your data' whilst also having it available to be subscribed to elsewhere.
  reply
• 

  mathewi

  5 months ago

  Those are fair points, Ben. If the partners don't get anything extra
  out of the deal, then I admit it's more open than I assumed it to be.
  And you are right that not everyone has the ability (or the desire) to
  control their own data -- although they should still have that option.
  Out of curiosity, does the API that MySpace is opening up go both
  ways, so that data can flow into the network as well as out?
  reply
• 

  Michael Sherrin

  5 months ago

  Just like Verizon's open network, I wonder if this is a lot of hype. I mean, we have Open Social waiting in the sidelines to take over. Anyway, does anyone even use MySpace anymore anyway, aside from all those spammers?
  reply