Social network user ‘Bill of Rights’ emerges

A group of early social network users, vendors and developers today posted what they are calling a “Bill of Rights”, demanding that users be granted greater control over the personal information they contribute to social network sites.

The document—posted at opensocialweb.org—asserts “fundamental rights” for social network users. It was co-authored by Joseph Smarr of Plaxo, Marc Canter of Broadband Mechanics, Robert Scoble of PodTech and Michael Arrington of TechCrunch. Smarr and Canter are part of businesses built at least in part around the concept of social network portability and openness, while Scoble and Arrington are well-known bloggers on Web 2.0 and social network issues.

The issue of whether or not social networks will exist as “walled gardens” that own and control the users and user data housed within them will have a major impact on how such networks develop—and in the ways that companies ultimately will be able to make money from them.

Users want to be able to control and manage their own data—not only for privacy but to avoid the painful task of constantly having to re-enter and synchronize data across multiple social networks. For owners of social networks, there is much value to be gained in being able to “lock” users into your social network. History shows, however, that such networks (Friendster being the best example) can flare up and recede at the whims of their users and the marketplace.

Among the rights claimed in the Bill of Rights:

Users are entitled to retain ownership of all data including personal profiles, friend lists and activity “streams”

Users should be able to control how such data is shared with others

Users should be able to syndicate their data to other sites using an API or open data format—essentially enabling social network portability

The creators of the “Bill of Rights” said they are working with social network vendors to evangelize the concepts and improve the document.

“Lots of our early supporters have been bringing up good issues to tweak the language—and that’s what we need—consensus,” wrote co-author Canter on his blog. “So stay tuned—this is just the first draft.”

Plaxo’s Smarr added that the Bill of Rights is part of “a larger conversation” that includes similar efforts such as DigitalConsumer.org’s Bill of Rights and technical and standards work on concepts such as the Friends of a Friend and microformats.