Users are increasingly wanting more and more powerful applications to access their social data - and having that data behind a firewall just won't do in 2008.
The DataPortability.org to the rescue..
One of the first vocabularies for the Semantic Web is obvious: Friend of a Friend!
Today, the Semantic Web now features stores scaling up to billions of data documents and APIs for major programming platforms...but it appears to be a solution in sort of a problem!
Why isn't the Semantic Web being established as silver bullet!
For example...
Using OpenID to access the data portability.
Work needed to be done to integrate OpenID into the Semantic Web stack!

Similar to "browser wars," there now are competing ways to share social graph data on the Internet.
Obviously a W3C-approved Semantic Web compatible standard way of doing this would be ideal.

Seems to soon be based on an OpenID-like model, but has currently evolving structure.
Clearly putting the word out and attracting interest - mostly from developers, and those who see their business model based on providing applications for portable social graphs instead of forcing users to recreate them.Is it possible to use FOAF for the data story?


Seen is slow, semi-closed, and old-fashioned - surely not the place for hip Web 2.0 developers and entrepreneurs! And we all know standards by committee are a disaster...
The W3C would be useful would to ratify, double-check, and flesh out corner-cases for existing standards that are created by a small and fast-moving group!
An optimal solution would be for the DataPortability.org to create a working technical solution over the next year, and then the W3C to ratify it through a Working Group.
One problem is without a patent policy we might inadvertently build a software patent into our standard.
Having a patent in supposed open standard that companies unwittingly implement is an instant business plan for troll.
For examples, see the conflict over XRIs (used in some ideas about data portability!) in the W3C, which led to the development of the W3C's patent policy.Royalty-Free might discourage both large corporations with huge numbers of patents from participating...but social data portability is only going to work if everyone comes to the table honestly and openly.
Stabilize relevant standards such as FOAF, VCard/OWL, and think through the interface of OpenID with the Semantic Web.
Complements the OpenID story being told by Data-Portability.org and can explore into other stories, such as those based on APIs and XML.Anyone can join as an Invited Expert and completely open.
If a W3C Member - interested in joining or co-sponsoring group's initial take-off?Help us create the charter on a wiki
This is the first semi-official announcement!
Allows a much-looser and quicker moving forum than a Working Group for exploratory purposes, allows creation of a Working Group in a year to be sped up!
Can push practical social data portability work and communicate with other groups.A litmus test for companies deciding if they are going to make their work to be royalty-free or not.
There is no technical reason why the social data in your e-mail account is kept artificially separated in your mobile phone, your social networking site, blog ...
The two questions are:
The first easy-to-use application that let people manage their social data across these services are going to make a large splash...

William Morris. A Dream of John Ball