decoder The future of online data

Data portability is one of Silicon Valley’s hottest topics, allowing consumers to use the same information across a diverse range of online applications. Keith Ng investigates whether marketers will benefit from this trend too

Data portability is big news in the US. The DataPortability Project was recently set up to investigate how existing technology can be used to make people’s online data more transferable. For the user, it should make life easier. But does it have marketing applications too? range of data about users and piece their lives together. In theory, demographic data or spending patterns could be matched with music preferences or favourite search terms to provide some pretty powerful marketing insights.

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What is it? The idea is

simple. Rather than having personal data tied to particular services, users should be able to ‘own’ that data and take it wherever they go. In the conventional model, a person’s name, information and photos exist on Flickr's database. Meanwhile, on Facebook, a completely separate set of information exists for the same person. A user-centric model would mean all that information is connected to that one person. It’s better for users, as they wouldn’t have to remember so many logins and passwords.

Data portability... consumers will only need one set of log-in data for multiple sites

OpenID. An identity created at an OpenID provider can be used anywhere that accepts OpenID. It’s important because it provides a unique identifier across different services, which makes it a useful reference point when moving data.

What it means for...

WEB COMPANIES The race is on to position themselves as information hubs and to make use of portable data. MARKETERS Cross-functional, consistent user data.And lots of it. USERS Single online identity, straightforward registration. But will it mean the end of privacy?

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What’s in it for marketers?

Who is involved? The DataPortability Project simply puts existing technology together in a standardised way, so all participants can connect with each other to provide end-toend data portability. That’s the ability to move data directly from one service to another. The working group for DataPortability already includes some of the web’s biggest players: Google, Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg and Flickr. One of the most high-profile projects under the umbrella of the DataPortability Project is

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The user-centric model provides straightforward benefits for marketers. For a start, user information is readily available in a standardised form. While getting the information will still require users’ permission, branded microsites and online campaigns can gather a wider range of data with more accuracy and less effort from the user. The range of data that will be opened up can provide plenty of new opportunities for marketers, but the most powerful possibility for usercentric data portability – and most dangerous, say privacy advocates – lies in the ability to aggregate a spectacularly wide

issues of privacy and protection of personal information are important parts of the DataPortability project, so brands should expect to abide by strict rules. But some companies are already looking at ways of using this data. Faraday Media (its CEO, Chris Saad, just happens to be the founder of the DataPortability project) has a tool called Particls that aggregates notifications from different social networks and user-selected news sources. Already, it has access to personal data and user interests. The interface then tracks a user’s actual reading behaviour and, putting the information together, it can provide in-depth analytics of user interest.

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Will marketers really have access to all this? The

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Will this actually happen?

The drive for usercentric data portability has backing from the big players and is gaining momentum. In the future, services that aggregate diverse web 2.0 sources or serve as hubs for personal information will have access to an unprecedented range of data. It will be standardised, meaningful and accessible. The possibilities are endless. I

digitalmedia-asia.com

22 digital media april 2008