A Social Revolution

Revolutionary activity may be needed in the social networking space soon to help make sure that all the key players make sure social networking standards continue to become more open, more transparent, and always *user centric*.

Dan Farber noted in an excellent post today:

It's time for the social networks, like the 13 colonies in 1774
banding together to be free of British authority, to unite and manifest that the
Web is by and for the users.

I say ... Huzzah! It's imperative that individual users and the community at large *insist* on standards that will make thing work well for the community. The data portability standards group is a great step in the right direction, though some are reasonably concerned that Myspace's leadership there may have more behind it than simple online altruism. Many are also skeptical that Facebook's rejection of the Google Friend Connect system was due to the privacy concerns stated by Facebook.

It is very important to recognize that from a practical point of view we don't want to wait around for the big commercial social sites to do things right - it is *our* responsibility to insist that they do the right things right out of the social chute.

Huzzah!