I’ve written about Dr. Michael Wesch a number of times in the past. For those of you not familiar, Dr. Wesch is a professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University and heads the Digital Ethnography Working Group, a team of cultural anthropology undergraduates exploring the impact of digital technology on human interaction and human interaction on digital technology.

Wesch, dubbed the Explainer by Wired Magazine has created and produced videos on technology, education, and information have been viewed over seven million times and are frequently featured at international film festivals and major academic conferences worldwide. He is perhaps most known for his videos that concisely but accurately describing the fundamental concepts surrounding the Web 2.0 phenomenon (Web 2.0… The Machine Is Us/ing Us). He recently did a public presentation on June 17, 2008 at the University of Manitoba where he described his own attempts to integrate Facebook, Netvibes, Diigo, Google Apps, Jott, Twitter, and other emerging technologies to create an education portal of the future.

“It’s basically an ongoing experiment to create a portal for me and my students to work online,” he explains. “We tried every social media application you can think of. Some worked, some didn’t.”

Image by University of Manitoba

The video I am linking to above on the University of Manitoba website is all about media literacy and how he engages his students at Kansas State University. This 66 minute video provides some insight into how he tries to make students knowledge-able (able to create and critique knowledge) rather than knowledgeable (mind dump education). The 66 minute video is lengthy but well worth the time if you are involved in education or professional development or are interested in what is really possible and how it can be done using collaborative technologies to engage and interact with learners.

This excellent slide show demonstrates the growing importance of micro-blogging and makes a case for “social objects” rather than social networking, and then lays out 5 principles for building services around them. Engestrom argues that “sites that fail are just ’social networks’,” whereas sites that have succeeded have organized around social objects such as music, photos, favorite websites, and books. He contends that microblogging with such applications as Twitter are disruptive because they are simpler, cheaper, and only need a mobile device to work, making them also more convenient.

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I had no sooner finished compiling and writing about a number of the big ticket predictions for 2008 when the blogosphere and the web in general was awash in talk about one of the trends that I had referenced: data portability. But what is it? Why are organizations like Plaxo, Google, Facebook, MySpace, and a lot of other well respected organizations and individuals taking note and joining the initiative? More importantly how can/will it effect you and your association?

Before I get too far into the specifics, I think it helps to have a fundamental understanding of what data portability is. Michael Pick, a Senior Technical Editor at Robin Good’s Master New Media blog, was commissioned by the DataPortability Group to create a video on the topic that I think does a fantastic job of explaining some of the finer points in a very easy to understand manner. From the video (and thanks to the Master New Media blog):

“You login to Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, YouTube, del.icio.us.

You login to LinkedIn, Wordpress, Ustream, Utterz, Jaiku… and that’s just the morning!

Then you have to maintain your accounts…

You create a profile.

And another profile.

And another profile.

Adding your contact details, adding your friends. Adding your contact details, adding your friends.

Adding your contact details… you get the message.

Great. There goes half your life.

Now, time to add some media…

Upload your photos, your avatars, your videos, your music…

Rinse and repeat.

Again, and again and again.

Net result: network fatigue. Your data locked up, in someone else’s hands.

Everything’s changing. The dataportability workgroup brings together a distributed filesystem for data. Bringing existing standards together into a single blueprint, dataportability is all about creating a free flowing web totally within your control and privacy.

What does that mean to you? A free, open, remixable web where your identity, contacts, relationships, personal details and media are free to follow you wherever you go…

Join some of the biggest companies in the world in the conversation today at dataportability.org!“

And because a picture is worth a thousand words, and videos are worth even more here is the video:

DataPortability - Connect, Control, Share, Remix from Smashcut Media on Vimeo.

The DataPortability is by no means a slamdunk or done deal, but I think now that some big names have signed-on, you may see this initiative gain additional traction, exposure and acceptance. I also think it is long overdue. I also think it could be a potential solution to the information overload that Matt and Lindy have been discussing with regard to information/attention overload.

What if you could easily move between sites/communities with a single account? What if your members could? Is this something you could leverage as a member benefit? There are obviously a lot of questions that arise the more you think about it. This is one trend that I will definitely be keeping an eye on this year. Next week, I’ll will take a look at this topic in greater detail to see how it may/may not apply to the association world. Until then, let me know what questions are on your mind on this or any other topic.