MySpace makes data portability move

Responding to the momentum around data portability, MySpace has launched its own "Data Availability" effort with big-name partners Yahoo, eBay, Twitter, and fellow News Corp. unit Photobucket.

The initiative's goal is to let MySpace members share their public profile data outside of the walls of the social-networking site.

"Today, MySpace no longer operates as an autonomous island on the Internet, by allowing the data that creates the engaging and collaborative experience that is MySpace to now be shared across all the sites our users visit," said Chris DeWolfe, CEO and cofounder of MySpace, during a press conference.

As the popularity of social networks keeps rising and people set up multiple profiles in such sites, they are demanding the ability to carry their data, content and connections from one site to another, so that they don't have to re-enter all that information again.

This is what the MySpace initiative aims to address, DeWolfe said. "Your personal online social profile will become your Internet address. Social activity isn't about creating a walled garden. Socially dynamic Web destinations should be portable and allow users to import and export aspects of their platform," he said.

The functionality will become available at some point in the coming weeks to both users and third-party sites. At the core will be privacy and security controls so that users retain tight control over what data they share and in which site.

"The initiative is founded first and foremost on allowing users to have comprehensive control over their own content and data. Users will have complete control over what information they share and who they share it with," said MySpace Chief Operating Officer Amit Kapur.

Data and content that users will be able to carry outside of MySpace will include public basic profile information, like their bios, interests, favorite music and movies, as well as their photos and videos.

Changes made to these elements on their MySpace profiles will be dynamically updated on the third-party sites. This also includes decisions to drop a site from their network of updates, which is key to privacy and security principles, MySpace officials said.

"Rather than populating new profiles and updating information across every Web site ... users can now update their status on MySpace and dynamically share that information with the other sites they care about," Kapur said.

MySpace will make this functionality available not only to large Web sites like the initial partners, but to sites of all sizes, including "mom-and-pop" ones with little technical know-how.

The main tool for MySpace members will be a control panel where they'll be able to manage their "data availability" parameters. The granularity of the controls in this panel will increase over time. Meanwhile, MySpace will also release client-side and server-side tools based on open standards for third-party Web sites that want to participate.

Part of the initiative includes MySpace's joining of the DataPortability Workgroup. Data availability is MySpace's first step toward embracing all aspects of data portability, said Jim Benedetto, MySpace's senior vice president of technology.