Another week, another announcement by a tech giant: Facebook announces Groups and downloads. Personally, I don’t care that much about groups, it might be too late for many people to find any usefulness in this feature. I’m not interested in dividing all my Facebook friends into different categories. It’s clear what Facebook is trying to do: Going after LinkedIn and other networks that are more niche and focused. (I spare you the rant that Facebook continues to live in a bubble and not get user experience – Opt-out for groups? Are you kidding me? Just look what happened to Jason Calacanis: He was added to a NAMBLA group without his knowledge and consent. Really pathetic.)
Let’s talk about something more important: Downloads. I’ll be nice and call it a good first step in the right direction. (Some call it a PR coup.) Many, including me, have complained that users have no way of accessing their data (since they created it) and no option porting it to other sites/applications. Well, the current move doesn’t mean portability. You can download all your data in a .ZIP file and that’s about it. At least, we can access our data now. But, that’s not data portability, as some claim. It’s giving users a bread crumb when they actually need the whole loaf.
My hope is that in some garages or dorm room, engineers are finding ways to use the .ZIP file to upload the information to create real personal data stores.
Who knows? Unknowingly, Facebook might have opened a Pandora’s Box.
uwehook 