[nrb]

I don't think an all-or-nothing knee-jerk approach is helpful here.

1) Should you have the right to do what you please with the data you create on a platform? Should companies be able to deny you this right? What should their obligations be RE: data portability?

2) Is it good for competition and customer choice for interoperability to exist? Conversely, is it bad if it doesn't? Are there any downsides to interoperability as a user?

Starting off with something as limited as an open standard for describing your node of a social graph would already be a huge improvement from where things are today. The question is whether users have the power to demand this, or if they even understand its benefits. At a certain point the incumbents become so rich and powerful that they just acquire or pound into dust any threat from new entrants.

[scarface74]

Why do you need “the government” to dictate that you should be allowed to do what you want with your data? I can export both my RSS subscriptions from my RSS aggregator and my podcast subscriptions from my podcast player to OPML. I chose software that lets me do that. I can export my email and calendar data using open formats.

I can’t think of any software or platform where you don’t have an alternative of choosing something that is interoperable and how is the government going to enforce it? Are they going to define the standard? Are they going to enforce that for all developers? Does that mean I have to follow some government standard every time I write software?

If they enforce an open social graph, does that mean the people I am connected to can export my information and import it into another service that I am not already on?

[nrb]

You'll notice I didn't use the word government or regulation in my message. As I said I'm not so sure a knee-jerk response like regulation is the answer right now, but that there might be some intermediate steps that would keep regulation from becoming necessary.

> Why do you need “the government” to dictate that you should be allowed to do what you want with your data? I can export both my RSS subscriptions from my RSS aggregator and my podcast subscriptions from my podcast player to OPML. I chose software that lets me do that. I can export my email and calendar data using open formats.

Right, and I cannot do that with my social network connections. And there is a HUGE financial incentive to disallow users from ever doing this.

> I can’t think of any software or platform where you don’t have an alternative of choosing something that is interoperable and how is the government going to enforce it? Are they going to define the standard? Are they going to enforce that for all developers? Does that mean I have to follow some government standard every time I write software?

Look to the real world for examples here. Social networks work a lot like telecommunication networks and the internet itself. Can you imagine if you needed an account on AT&T, Spring, T-Mobile, etc etc and know each persons per-network-unique number to call or text them? How about if you had to have an account with each individual network provider that served websites, and they had no universal way to address them?

> If they enforce an open social graph, does that mean the people I am connected to can export my information and import it into another service that I am not already on?

Theoretically it doesn't require anything more than an signature/public key that it uses to match you and your connections when you have both joined some other new network. It could be designed in such a way that the new network cannot build a "shadow profile" of you because the "relationship keys" are unique per connection, eg. three friends that are all connected to each other would have unique keys representing their relationships.