The problem with dataportability is with the providers, not services (duh)
Uno as Ideas, Products, Social Networks, Web2.0
Jan|21|2008
Going through my feeds this morning I once again came across the “bad user design” meme. A lot of people have been talking about it. Jeremy Keith, Josh Morgan, Brian Oberkirch, Dare Obasanjo, also even Paul Buchheit (the guy behind Gmail) and it was particularly explicit and loud when Robert Scoble went through that whole Plaxo/Facebook screenscraping episode.
Basically what people are saying is that it’s a bad idea to give sites your usernames/passwords when you sign up. This creates a bad anti-pattern and sets a horrible precedent for users who simply give their email user/pass to hundreds of different startups with dismal security standards making it very easy for hackers to get to your sensitive data. It’s called the “password anti-pattern”.
It’s not a new meme I’m proposing, seems like Simon Willison has wrote a bit about it as well, and it does seem like most people are proposing a similar solution - using OAuth to facilitate the authentication process. It’s exactly what I’m thinking, and I also think that we’re pointing fingers at the wrong people. At the moment we’re pointing fingers to a bunch of services, or new apps like Plaxo, Twitter, Spock, etc etc. It’s something we see in almost every new web app: “Import your friends!” And then we cry foul, blasting the service.
But, if the providers made that data accessable, through a properly secure API, would it not be possible to get around this? In my mind Flickr provides probably the best page-flow pattern. So I’m saying the PROVIDERS are making this anti-pattern possible. Facebook must make it VERY easy to export users, so must Gmail and so must Yahoo etc. This must be standardized so that containers (using Open Social terminology) can provide that data using some kind of token system, and it must also happen in a process that doesn’t ask for you user/pass. I believe that because it’s not possible, networks are leaving developers with no other option but to do screen scraping.
Hopefully now that pretty much every network has joined Dataportability.org we’ll see some of this stuff actually happening.
I realise that I must be missing the boat and that the tech is probably there. But being a non-tech I don’t know what’s possible. I’m just thinking that seeing all these services still asking for my user/pass is bad design, and that if all the sites haven’t adopted the token/authentication system, then there is something wrong.
Go OAuth! Go OpenID!
Technorati Tags: dataportability, portable social networks, password, anti-pattern
Apartment for rent in Cape Town
Uno as South Africa, Travel
Jan|16|2008
I’ve finally managed to get my bachelor flat in Fresnaye finished and furnished. There are still some trimmings that need to be completed, but it’s ready and livable.
I’m renting it out on a daily basis as a holiday apartment, or if you find yourself in Cape Town for business then it should also be available.
The place is fully furnished and has all the amenities that you’d want, it’s also ridiculously close to the beach and promenade, as well as some cool shops in Sea Point. (Just around the corner from Eric’s eSquared Fashion).
For full rental details you can visit this site.
Like I said, I am renting out it, and if you use the special geek password (geekpassword) then you’ll be entitled to a nice little discount! Also, I have an affiliate scheme in place, make sure that people you refer use your name and I’ll swing a weekend your way!
And here are some pics! If you click through to my Flickr set then you will get to the before and after pics. Take a look and see what the difference is!
After:
More:
Before:
During:
Does the 1/10/90 rule apply to music?
Jan|14|2008
I’ve been fascinated by Radioheads selling of In Rainbows on the internet. People have been heralding it as the end of record labels etc etc.
Now, Justice, one of my favourite DJ/producer acts, are teaming up with the rest of the Ed Banger crew to play at Madison Square Gardens. That’s a capacity of 20,000 people. It’s ENORMOUS! Bands like U2 play there.
This is quite strange though, generally, you would only do this if you had millions of record sales and you were assured of a sell-out gig. Imagine 5,000 people (still a massive number) in such a huge space as MSG. Now… the problem is that Justice have only sold 40,000 albums in the US. still a lot, but not nearly enough to warrant the 20,000 people in MSG
We all know about the 1/10/90 rule, where it means that if you have 100 people visiting your site, 1 percent will be active contributers, 10% will contribute sometimes and 90% will just lurk. Can you apply this to music?
Justice has seen close to 4.3 Million hits on their Myspace page, and their top video D.A.N.C.E. has hit 5.6 million views on Youtube. Can we start saying that 1% of your listeners will actually buy your album, 10% will attend your party and 90% will download your music and love your music? It must be another kind of metric, but it’s something I can see.
Take a listen to a Justice set here