What DataPortability Is:
I just spent my Sunday evening (from about 6pm GMT until 9:30pm GMT) having a discussion about what data portability is exactly. Here is my first informal definition, which seems to fit the general idea that was being talked about.
First things first. DataPortability is a brand… its a kind of un-organisation (a bit like BarCamps are un-conferences); a group of people and organisations who have the same philosophy, a philosophy of the portability of data. Every member of DataPortability should push for (advocate/evangelise) portability of data to web-users, developers and organisations. The DataPortability Project will support other projects/groups working towards data portability (at the moment this explicitly includes communities involved in OpenID, OAuth, Microformats and the Semantic Web). Some members of DataPortability are also involved with legal issues and privacy which are just as important as the portability of data. The DataPortability Project is there to support people into a Web of Data.
Portability of data, or data portability is portable data. In other words, data can be copy/pasted and/or moved from one location to another. This is dependent on accessibility.
There is an issue of identity of data, in my opinion this can be described in a format such as RDF and identified using a URI (in the case of a user identifier this could be an OpenID, which is a URI connected with an authentication protocol).
Similar to the Semantic Web?
There are things “in” the DataPortability Project which are similar to things in the Semantic Web Project/Community and vice-versa. The Semantic Web basically provides the theory/research, tools and techniques to create and link objects together. The DataPortability project, however, provides advice and support to create objects which can be moved around over the web. Both groups are looking into privacy and legal issues. Both groups do use and research each others recommendations.
Linked Data
Linked Data is essential, I can’t stress this enough, and I will be focusing on this a lot in the future. It is not explicitly part of the DataPortability Project, but it is part of the Semantic Web. It is essential for the Web of Data to exist.
Note
These are very rough thoughts based on an informal skype chat, DataPortability members are developing a more formal definition. I’ll let you know when its released, but the above are my thoughts.
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