Data Portability

John Dyer, the author of freetextbox amongst other things, has written a nice post about the introduction to data portability. It's almost a utopian idea that you should be able to move all your data from one site to another - for example all your friends and posts from facebook into the next new social network, or all your photos from flikr to photobucket to microsoft live to who know what else.

I like the idea. It gives way for a more democratic, less commercial ideal across the web from a user's point of view, and makes companies who want your patronage work harder by ultimately making better apps.

It's a long way off, but the liquid nature of the internet could welcome it with open arms if done properly.

Open ID

Finally we are starting to see some kind of standard rise up across the net on the subject of authentication in the form of Open ID. Some big names are starting to sign on - AOL have annouced support and apparently Microsoft has announced interoperbility with Windows Cardspace.

This looks like it could be a goer - I'll post more info once I am able to implement it somewhere.