Blank (Media) Slate

Now that the DataPortability Project is building momentum, it seemed like a good time to update the wider community with what’s been going on in the boiler room.  It’s probably not obvious, but we spent quite a bit of time laying the foundation upon which we can collectively build workable solutions toward truly user-centric data portability.

In case you’re allergic to operational discussions, you might want to skip down to the “What You Can Do” section of this note.  Sometimes the dust thrown up by the construction of the foundation can obscure what needs to be done to advance the cause.  As the dust is settling, you might consider throwing some cycles into working on areas of interest.

Speaking to the foundation, we’re pleased to announce that the DataPortability Steering Action Group officer positions have been ratified.  It started with defining a core set of operational governance rules.  Once they were in place, we were able to paint by the numbers to follow the path from nominations through voting to ratification. With that, as of last night, here is the list of officers:

• Chair - Daniela Barbosa
• Vice-Chair - Elias Bizannes
• Secretary - J. Trent Adams
• Treasurer - Brady Brim-DeForest

Further, these officers only represent the codified positions required for the organization to function.  There are a total of 12 voting members of the Steering Group who are continually engaged via email, chat, and weekly teleconferences.  This group has worked tirelessly together to help build the amazing foundation upon which we’re now able to build.  The voting members are (listed alphabetically by last name):

• J. Trent Adams
• Daniela Barbosa
• Elias Bizannes
• Brady Brim-DeForest
• Steven Greenberg
• Brett McDowell
• Drummond Reed
• Chris Saad
• Steve Repetti
• Christian Scholz
• Steve Williams
• Phil Wolff

As a side note, these are the “voting” members who nominated themselves from the full set of members on the general mailing list.  It’s important to remind everyone, however, that the Steering Group discussions and meetings are open to all community members (i.e. anyone reading this).  You can follow the discussion threads and teleconference agendas are generally posted a week in advance, so please leap in when a topic piques your interest.

To be clear, the Steering Group is charted with simply managing the organization.  The goal is to ensure the DataPortability Project has everything it needs to succeed by erecting a functional framework within which the community can effectively operate.  What is outside the scope of the Steering Group is the actual work to accomplishing our common objective.  The specific work is being defined and performed by the community members within various Action Groups (aka “standing committees”) and Task Forces (aka “special committees”).

What You Can Do

There are a zillion different ways anyone interested can help advance the collective ball.  A few formalized projects are already under way, and it’d be helpful if you joined the parties:

1. Mission / Vision Task Force
   Chaired by Elias Bizannes, this Task Force is chartered with the formalization of an official set of guiding statements for the DataPortability Project as a whole.  If you’re interested in discussing big picture items, this would be the perfect place to contribute.
2. Governance Task Force
   Chaired by Steve Greenberg, this Task Force is working on the next layer of operational framework needed to build on top of the core we’ve used to get where we are today.  For the folks on this list interested in the mechanics of collective decision-making, this is where you’d be a valuable asset.
3. Communications Action Group
   Chaired by Chris Saad, this ongoing Action Group has the huge responsibility for the communication of what the project as a whole is doing.  Under this banner are the web site, blogs, wiki, and discussion lists we use to keep the full community of interested participants on the same page.  Anyone who is interested in helping keep the lines of communication open are encouraged to lend their time and talent to the cause.
4. Logo / Branding Task Force
   Chaired by Brady Brim-DeForest, this Task Force is working specifically on the branding identity for the project.  This includes the logo (yes, again) and all of the associated tag lines and usage guides we can use moving forward.  If you’re a logo jockey, marketing maven, or just someone with ideas, this is the place to showcase your talent.  There isn’t a formalized discussion channel or wiki page, yet, so contact Brady directly.
5. DataPortability Grid Tool Task Force
   Chaired by Daniela Barbosa, this is a Task Force working on building a dynamic “grid” that indicates what companies and sites support what we can consider to be “data portability” technologies.  This work began at a recent workshop and has been a touch- point across multiple working groups.  As of now, the data compiled is being converted from spreadsheets into a MySQL database and PHP front end.  Anyone interested in working on making it a fully-functional tool are encouraged to contact Daniela or me directly.
6. General Participation
   As a general process, we’re going to try to do a better job of maintaining the “Get Involved” page on the wiki.  This is a great starting point, and as new initiatives pop on the radar, we’ll try to update this page so it’s clear how to get involved, or at the very least stay up to date.

These are simply the initiatives, Action Groups, and Task Forces that have already been ratified by the Steering Group.  That doesn’t mean that other work is being neglected or is otherwise unimportant.  Far from it.  In fact, we hope that many of you are actively pursuing some interest related to the DataPortability Project cause.

To that point, if you’ve been generating interest in a project, you might consider having it “ratified” as an “official” objective to be tracked by the Steering Group.  If it’s a short-duration project it might make sense to light up a Task Force.  Otherwise, if it’s mission would be more ongoing, perhaps it should be an Action Group.  Either way, I encourage you to contact anyone on the Steering Group to see what’s needed to get it on the docket.

We’re still working out some of the guidelines that should clarify the process in moving an idea from discussion through official ratification.  We have a loose model we’re following based on the success of the few we’ve already put through their paces, but if you’re interested in helping tighten up the process, reach out to Steve Greenberg and the Governance Task Force.

Finally, if you’ve read this far… many thanks.  We’ve been working incredibly hard over the past 7 months or so and I’m humbled by what we’ve accomplished.  It hasn’t been easy, and there’s so much still to be done that it’s kind of daunting.  I can honestly say, though, that everyone on this journey so far has been an amazing contributor.  I’m honored to be a part of the process.

Here’s to the future of the DataPortability Project.