The big names keep signing-up for Data Portability, with Microsoft being the latest to express an interest in any standardisation that may arise from the workgroup.

There’s one question that’s really been at the forefront of my mind ever since Facebook joined the Data Portability group; where will customers go if their data is truly portable?

Well, for starters, I think they’ll stay in exactly the same place. They won’t move an inch until budged. And, in my world, that means Facebook (social side), LinkedIn (business side), and Twitter (twitterings/random musings/thoughts - yes, it’s in a world of it’s own) will continue to hold the top spots.

However, times will change, and people will leave today’s top social networking sites due to boredom, spam, and post-acquisition development wind-down time. The services that will win, in the long run, are those that articulate your data in the most precise, useful, and well-presented way. Quite simply, if people can take their data wherever they wish, they’ll definitely take it to the service with the best interface.

As a (UK-based) Web start-up, every social Web app that comes out of Web Appropriate will need a strategy for data portability. So, ours will be to strive for the cleanest, well-interpreted interfaces out there. Being closed probably won’t be a strategy for much longer; offering well designed products will always be a good business proposition, no matter how much widgetisation occurs on the Web.