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The Scoble mess and data portability

excerpt So Robert Scoble has his account suspended by Facebook for using an automated script to harvest his contacts and their email addresses (see my previous post), and all hell breaks loose. Scoble, whose account is later reinstated, is denounced for being a publicity-seeking limelight hog, a ...

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    ianbetteridge 6 months ago with 1 point

    "So how come you can do that with every service except Facebook? That doesn’t seem right."

    It's interesting, though, that people are beginning to see the downsides of doing this. For example, take the pain and suffering that people who allowed Quechup to use their address books have suffered (see http://www.technovia.co.uk/2007/09/sorry-for-th... for my own example).

    As more and more "social network" services crop up which abuse this kind of openness, I suspect that closed networks will actually come back into vogue, as people seek to keep their data under wraps.

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    mathewi 6 months ago with 1 point

    There's no question there's a downside to doing it, Ian -- and Quechup
    and Plaxo are both good examples of that. But aren't there downsides
    to social networks as a whole, not to mention the Internet itself? I
    for one hope that people don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
    and decide that all sharing of such data is bad, or turn the Web into
    a series of walled, private gardens.

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    Jimmy 6 months ago with 1 point

    Matt,
    I agree, I also side with Scoble on this. I had a take on it in a post I had last night. I thought about it all day. But basically, in using these social networks, we are making an investment. We invest our time and efforts to get some return. It is not fair for someone to be able to take our "nestegg" and delete it. We are not speculating on stocks here, that is a risk. Anyway, great post and check out mine if you have a second.
    http://tinyurl.com/24c3qk

    regards

    jimmy

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    mathewi 6 months ago with 1 point

    Thanks for the comment, Jimmy. Good post.

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    Mark Evans 6 months ago with 1 point

    A good example of how a company with data is building its ecosystem by allowing partners to scrap is http://www.getitnext.com/, which provides people with another way to look at eBay.

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    antje 6 months ago with 1 point

    Still just seems a big difference in allowing you, as my friend, to move my data to your email client, which I would have no problem with, but to Plaxo (or a worse)- I would definitely have a problem with that. I wouldn't know how delineate the intentions of the user, but it would seem that companies need to be cognizant of this. Plaxo's intentions seem to be to want to do something with that data (my contact info), whereas an email client it seems more a tool of practicality for the user, not the company (email client company).

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    Corvida 6 months ago with 1 point

    Great article Matt, but I must say that...I'm not with Scoble on this issue. But it is kind of ironic that Facebook wouldn't allow you to scrape it, but it will scrape other services to benefit it's service.

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    net1492 6 months ago with 1 point

    Mathew I agree, Gmail, etc. allow you to import your address book, do your friends really think you will not import there email addresses into whichever email system turned social network you like at the moment . Just did a quick check and Orkut which is part of Google seems to be able to find people I know even though I haven't upload my address book to Orkut. Not that this is an in depth review of Orkut I think people are deluding themselves if they think they can control there email address at a minimum..

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    jay 1 month ago with 1 point

    nice point Mathew and I do agree!!!!

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