I for one believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion, and if Sean Parker over at the Founder’s Fund wants to use words like “red-herring” when describing data portability – well, he is entitled to that comment, just as I am entitled to vehemently disagree! Here’s the full article that raised my ire, and here’s my response:
“To be clear, he thinks Google will stay huge and relevant, but it’s dominance will go down because collecting data is less valuable than connecting people, he said.”
Uh… that’s assuming we can FIND the connecting people – and it is for that very reason that Google has a phenomenal opportunity to encroach on the Facebook’s of the world. Google is trying to be the 411 of ALL information – and they are aggressively moving into the world of real-time integration — how long is it before searching Google for your friends yields status updates with links in and beyond Facebook and Twitter?
As for Data Portability being a “red-herring” – WOW! Data Portability is not just about technology, but about process, rights, and mindset. Without that so-called red-herring, the investment you make in creating, refining, updating, and enhancing all of your data would be “owned” by someone else.
@sean: grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
-- Steve.
