It was definitely one of those days, out amongst the new web’s cognoscenti. Twitterers wittered. Bloggers expounded (with Nick Carr, as usual, amongst the more considered). The vast mass of web travellers passed by without blinking an eye, unaware of either storm or teacup.

I am of course talking, like so many others, about Robert Scoble being barred from Facebook for using an as-yet unlaunched capability of Plaxo that clearly and unambiguously breached Facebook’s Terms and Conditions.

It all began with a ‘tweet’ from Robert Scoble, about the time that post-holiday blues kicked in for those returning to work this (UK) morning;

“Oh, oh, Facebook blocked my account because I was hitting it with a script. Naughty, naughty Scoble!”

Twitter exploded, closely followed by large chunks of the blogosphere. Whilst it’s certainly true, as Scoble himself pointed out, that a more rational response on Facebook’s part would have been to bring the Ts&Cs to Scoble’s attention and ask - firmly - that he desist, the hysterical baying in Scoble’s defence was an extreme example of the worst side of the new world in which we find ourselves. Facebook was tried by kangaroo court, found guilty of heinous crimes, convicted, and sentenced to indescribable punishments. All without a right to reply, without (it would appear) much consideration, and without anyone (other than Scoble, who correctly stuck to the terms of the NDA he was under with Plaxo at the time) being in possession of anything approaching the whole story.

Minutiae aside, the whole affair raises a couple of points pertinent to one of the biggest issues for 2008; ownership, portability and openness of data.

• I want to be able to take my data from a service such as Facebook, and use it somewhere else. That’s what Marc Canter has been arguing forever, along with the AttentionTrust, OpenSocial (to a degree), DataPortability.org and many more. That’s part of the rationale behind all the work we’ve been doing on the Open Data Commons, too. However, whether I want to or not, doing it the way Scoble did is a breach of the terms and conditions of Facebook; terms and conditions to which I - and he - signed up when we chose to use the site. If you don’t like the terms, don’t use the service. It’s as simple as that;
• Even were I allowed to export ‘my’ data, there’s a fuzzy line between that which is mine and that which isn’t. The fact that I am a Facebook friend with Nova Spivack certainly should be mine to take wherever I choose. The contact details Nova chooses to surface to me as part of that relationship, however? Are they mine to take with me, or his to control where I can surface them? There’s clearly work to do there, although it’s interesting that ‘even’ people such as Tara Hunt are reacting (also on Twitter, of course) with;

“I’m appalled that someone can take my info 2 other networks w/o my permission. Rights belong 2 friends, too.”

This story draws to an end, as Facebook accepts Scoble’s apology and lets him back in. The issues go far wider than Facebook, though, and will continue to loom large in the coming months. To whom does data belong, how long can restrictive terms and conditions survive, what are we allowed to do with data that falls into our hands, and what rights do other stakeholders in any datum have?

And what happens when the mainstream media, it’s appetite whetted by wandering disks and other gaffes, catches sight of the opportunities online, whips itself up to a hysterical fever pitch, and then stands gleefully aside as johnny-come-lately politicos hastily slap draconian and ill-conceived legislation on a set of issues that they fail to even begin to grasp?

It’s telling that the Financial Times‘ Richard Waters concluded his part of that paper’s crystal ball gaze into 2008 with;

“The Google juggernaut will gather even more momentum, pushing its share of the search business up to 75 per cent worldwide, its revenues to $18bn and its stock price past $1,000. Now it has seen off Microsoft and Yahoo and proved it can grow exponentially without missing a beat, a severe economic downturn remains the main threat.

By the end of the year Google’s massive, and spreading, influence should start to force a realignment of the online landscape. The first result: a merger dance between Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and Ebay, as the rival search, advertising and e-commerce companies adjust to deal with the new reality. But Google’s Achilles heel will also be revealed this year as official concerns over online privacy reach new heights, with European regulators leading the way.”

(my emphasis)

Interesting times lie ahead. Let there be no doubt.

Image of Robert Scoble copied from Wikipedia, where it was made available in the public domain by Robert Scoble.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, open data, Open Data Commons, Plaxo, Twitter, Robert Scoble, Talis

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