Search engine provider Google and social networking website Facebook have both joined the DataPortability Workgroup, it has been revealed.Spearheaded by Chris Saad of start-up Faraday Media, the DataPortability Workgroup is an alliance of people and organisations devoted to the creation of a DataPortability Reference Design to document the best practices for integrating existing open standards and protocols "for maximum interoperability".
The group describes its goal as "to put all existing technologies and initiatives in context to create a reference design for end-to-end data portability and to promote that design to the developer, vendor and end-user community".
According to Mr Saad, the support of Google and Facebook - which will be represented in the group by Brad Fitzpatrick and Benjamin Ling respectively - "presents a new opportunity for the next generation of software, particularly in the fields of social software [and] user rights".
He added: "This means users will be able to access their friends and media across all the applications, social networking sites and widgets that implement the design into their systems."
Along with Google and Facebook, digital assistant service Plaxo is also joining the alliance, represented by Joseph Smarr.
Other groups with a presence in the workgroup include the BBC, Yahoo!, Zooomr and NineMSN.
Social networking interoperability is being put forward as a necessary step in the ever-changing medium, the Times of India reports.
