Basics of Data Portability Explained
Posted by James | Filed under Future, Geek, Web
I’ve been reading a lot recently about data portability, and specifically the DataPortability.org Working Group. High level members of Google and Facebook staff joined the group about a week ago, key people from LinkedIn, SixApart, Flickr and Twitter joined a couple of days later, and Mozilla’s CEO said that his organisation is looking closely and will likely join the group.
That’s all well and good but does anyone actually know what we are waiting for?
Though it’s only been a week since Google and Facebook staff joined the organization, there’s been some key progress made this morning in explaining the aims of the movement. Whereas parts of Data Portability (like OpenID) have been plagued with foggy evangelistic efforts for years, check out the following video explaining the concepts. This strikingly well-produced work was made independently by screencaster Michael Pick of Smashcut Media.
DataPortability - Connect, Control, Share, Remix from Smashcut Media on Vimeo.
I’m really impressed. The past week may have been more talk and hype than anything else - but talk plays an important roll in building pressure for change. Major vendors have come to the table, now advocates of change everywhere have one more useful tool in this video to make sure that the public doesn’t forget about the conversation that’s begun.
Though it appears that Data Portability has a long road ahead of it and that major vendors are unlikely to open up access to their users’ data, in fact openness has some important competitive advantages. The open and integrated vendor has far greater network effect and scale of access to data for their own purposes than the data hording vendor. The biggest challenge may be building a new social contract to protect customer privacy and control in this exciting new era of portability and personalization. You can join that conversation at DataPortability.org and elsewhere.
Michael Pick has chosen the easy-on-the eyes player from Vimeo to embed his video, the code to repost the video elsewhere is available with just a click or two from inside the player here.
Tags: dataportability, facebook, google, linkedin, mozilla, openid, portability, sixapart, twitter, video
Remember The Milk Releases Gmail To-Do List!
Posted by James | Filed under Geek, Web
Despite feeling like my head is going to fall off because of the fact I’m working on Christmas Eve, I am nevertheless a well-organised annoyed person thanks to a spiffy Firefox extension released by Remember the Milk (hereafter referred to as RTM - because I am lazy).
I’m sure, if you’re reading a blog like this, that you know what RTM is (you internet-savvy daredevil that you are). But if you accidentally stumbled upon this blog, and are desperately looking for an exit, I’ll briefly explain that RTM is a web-based reminder / to-do service. I set up an account right at the beginning but I have never really used it because a) I tend to use a multitude of notebooks scattered around my desk to keep on top of tasks, and b) I need to have something staring me in the face all day long for me to actually use it.
So since I typically have Gmail open all day and I work in front of a computer, I’ve been really waiting for Google to introduce their own integrated to-do feature. I’ve been fairly mystified as to why Google has been dragging their feet bringing out a relatively simple feature like this. Surely a to-do list is a logical extension of an email service, a calendar, and an online office suite? Some were speculating that Google wasn’t doing it because they had probably decided just to go the easy (and usual) route and buy someone out. Maybe even RTM. Maybe RTM made this Gmail extension as if to say “want to buy us Google? Come and get us!”.
Anyway, whatever the reasons for RTM making this extension, it is still a really great extension and if you use both Gmail and Firefox then this is a “must-have” extension. I always avoid writing “must-have Firefox extensions” blog posts as the internet is full of these kinds of crappy posts but I have to make an exception in this case. Get this one.
One of the things I really like about the extension is that if you give a specific label to an email (such as “to-do” then the email is automatically added to your RTM to-do list. When you un-label the email, it disappears from your RTM list.
The actual list itself sits to the right of the screen. So your inbox gets pushed to the left a bit like three people squeezing into the back seat of a car (with the poor inbox being the crushed pig in the middle!) . If you then go to your Gmail settings, there is now a sub-tab where you can configure your RTM extension to get it the way you want it.
Tags: email service, firefox extension, google, reminder, rtm
The GDrive Is Here… Maybe
Posted by James | Filed under Future, Geek, Web
Google’s long rumoured but never delivered online storage product GDrive (code name Platypus) may finally be on its way, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Google declined to comment on specific online storage plans aside from "storage is an important component of making Web applications fit easily into consumers’ and business users’ lives."
As it has been noted before, Google offers a number of storage options within many of its current suite of online tools, allowing users to store email, photos, office documents and blog posts. The new storage service will end up tying together some of the services through a single search box, instead of having to switch between different system interfaces (or download client-side solutions such as Google Desktop).
Pricing details for the service are not yet announced, but the WSJ indicates that there will likely be free and paid version available.
There can be no doubt that this service is one of the most anticipated tools since the GPhone, so much that is prompted a number of hacks to the GMail system to simulate the imagined functionality of the service. It is far more likely, however, that when the GDrive system does come to fruition that it will end up working a lot more like an overlay to existing file management utilities, as opposed to an extension to the local file system on the client computer.
Tags: gdrive, google, platypus, storage product
Welcome to Jimmahdigital.com, personal blog of James Simm, Wigan/Manchester-based .Net developer.
