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.

Read/WriteWeb is doing a feature series on non-profits and web this week.

In 2007, with the enormous popularity of social networks, non-profits have even more ways to reach their target audience. Change.org, a social network for social activism that we profiled at the beginning of this year, is one example of the current generation of Web enabled non-profits.

They are going to take a look at how non-profit organizations use the Web and the tools available for them. Today they did a nice write-up on how non-profits are profiting from social media services Facebook and Myspace.

Amid all the hoopla over social networks Facebook and MySpace, both major social networks have prominant sections for non-profit activity. Facebook’s is called Causes and MySpace’s is Impact. In this post we’ll take a closer look at how Facebook and MySpace cater to non-profits.

They plan on doing a follow-up on smaller non-profits. If you are interested in learning about how non-profits are making use of the web this is a series worth keeping an eye on.

One of the biggest stigmas that social media has been, and continues to, contend with is the fact that it’s a time sink and harmful to productivity. Ben Martin shared an article with me a few days ago (Facebook surfers cost their bosses billions) that related the findings of a study of Facebook users within Australia. The authors findings: Facebook users who keep a close watch on their profile page were responsible for costing their employers approximately $4 billion USD a year. From the report:

“Facebook is shaping up as every boss’ nightmare as the social networking Web site urges its members to hook up with workmates online. That means millions of corporate dollars could be lost as workers manage their online social life via Facebook, rather than being productive in front of the screen.”

Based on the dollar amount alone, this is a startling and staggering revelation, but I believe it’s misleading and not entirely accurate. Additionally, studies and finding like these only make it harder for the productivity, community and communication enhancing effects of social media tools and technologies to be demonstrated and validated. This in turn makes it rather difficult to suggest or adopt technologies within organizations because public opinion is obviously clearly divided.

In a recent posting titled: “Facebook Is Not a Waste of Worktime” on the Digital Edge blog Beth Lawton seemed to echo very similar sentiments in defending the merit and value of social media technology in the digital media field. In constructing her argument she cited reasons such as (I created the categories, her thoughts are quoted):

• Know Thy Users: “As a newspaper online editor (or any digital media exec), you should be looking at these sites to figure out why everyone is playing with these sites.”
• Diversify Your Approach: “you may want to find out how you can either Work with the sites’ capabilities or partnership programs to get your content in front of your target audience or incorporate some of the cool elements from these sites and networks into your own digital media outlet.”
• Know Thy Competitors: “especially with Facebook platform, a ton of publications, digital media outlets and companies are working to gain access to consumers in creative ways.”
• Network, Network, Network: “Digital media groups, alumni groups, localized industry groups, etc.

Beth finishes her thoughts with the following statement:

“if you work in digital media and you are not “wasting” time on Facebook, MySpace and other Web 2.0 outlets – where your content consumers, potential content consumers and other digital media people are spending their time – you should be there.”

In looking at this from an Association perspective, I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I’d be willing to go so far as to suggest removing digital media from the statements above and filling in your own association or industry/field/etc. that your association is trying to serve.

Bottom line: you need to be where your members are, and understand where your members go in order to serve them effectively and provide them as much value as possible. If you are not, they will either go and do it themselves or go and find it somewhere else. In either case its the association who loses out, not the individual. Social media is a great connector, and while not without its faults, does have many more positives than negatives. Lets start to try to highlight it’s strengths so others can learn from our successes while we also take a close look on it’s weaknesses so we can figure out how to fix/correct them. Saying that social media is a waste of time is the easy way out…it’s just lazy.