Who owns our data?
Who controls the data (our data) that daiily we create and upload to social networks?
Think at your account on flickr, youtube, twitter, jaiku, linkedin and so on.
Think at your pictures, videos, contacts, relationships, links.
It's not just a matter of wasted time: it's a problem of control.
We don't control our own data: every platform we use lock-in us in the same environment, raising the costs to come out and join another network.
A likely solution could be the DataPortability Project.
The aim of DataPortability is to
gather existing open standards into a blueprint for a social, open, remixable web where your online identity, media, contacts and content can follow you wherever you go.
A nice video - appeared on vimeo - shows us the main goals of the project and why you are going to need that.
DataPortability - Connect, Control, Share, Remix from Smashcut Media on Vimeo.