Portability
is a Rose
Data Portability Policy Metaphors
Rough ideas for the DataPortability Project
EULA/ToS Task Force
By Phil Wolff

What are the  What data portability
Portability
parts of a
promises do we* expect
service’s End from Internet sites and
User License services?
or Terms of
 We* the people, tribes,
Service?
families, organizations, and
societies
 How best to organize and
explain those expectations?

Metaphors  4 frames
build on
 Social
existing
cultural  Psychological
structures and  Legal
human
experiences  Political

What’s a meta  Portability is
for?  Our relationship
 Life cycles
 The new privacy policy
a universal disclosure standard
 Identity’s Creative Commons
license
 simpler policies unleash social
activity
 Net Neutrality
 consumer and citizen protection
principles rebalance power

“I'm looking for metaphor
elements that make
portability easier to
understand, to argue for,
and to stir people up and
connect emotionally.”

1.
Portability is a Relationship
Fall in Love - Make it Work - Break Up Well

A relationship 1. Open Arms
in three stages
2. Ever Fresh
3. Graceful Exit
start sustain end
time

Open Arms  Emotion
 Beginnings, welcome, curiosity,
fun, discovery
 Actions
 Move in with all of your things
 Learn everything about each
other
 Payoffs
 Better understood relationship
 Services do more with more
info

Open Arms We are full of hope when we
start, digging deep to learn
about each other, exploring
ways to work together,
developing trust, making
promises. We want some
quick joy, validating further
investment and engagement.

Open Arms “When you come to our site,
bring all of yourself.
We'll help you put it to use
in our context.
We'll make it easy to come.
We'll keep it safe.
We'll respect ownership as
you see it.
“What you add while you are
here
will join your collection
and be portable in turn.”

Ever Fresh  Emotion
 Comfort, Trust, Familiarity, Getting
Things Done
 Actions
 Keep the relationship going
 Keep up with my onlife when I’m
not at your site
 Keep the rest of my onlife
informed of what we do together
 Resolve problems together
 Payoffs
 Update once, Enjoy everywhere

Ever Fresh “We will consume and share
your onlife with other
services and you. So
everywhere you go, you have
all of yourself, as
appropriate. As we change,
we'll let you know.”

Graceful  Emotion
 Fear, anxiety, concern, anger
Exit  Actions
 Notice, Redress, Recovery
 Migrate and download my onlife
 Completeness: all my digital
debris: stuff, friends, conversations
 Payoffs
 Confidence earlier in the
relationship
 Continue your onlife without
disruption

Graceful  All relationships finish.
Exit With a little forethought it
can be less painful, leaving
us with good memories and
the ability to move on with
our lives.
 Graceful Exit is your online
prenuptial agreement.

Graceful Six elements to minimize the damage
of forced eviction.
Exit 1. Intervene quickly.
2. Prevent by building exit
strategies into products from
the start.
3. Commit by building Graceful
Exit into EULAs and TOSs.
4. Insure to spread risk and fund
prevention and remediation.
5. Advocate for consumers and
netizens.
6. Enforce through legal means.

Relationship  Pros
metaphor  Time stages
Pros & Cons  Human contexts, not technical
or legal ones
 Emotional overlay
 Prior art from other kinds of
relationships
 Cons
 Corny
A little Cosmo Quiz

2.
Portability is the new Privacy

Portability  Both P’s were triggered by
is the new explosive growth of people
Privacy using the web
 Framed problems, solutions
and opportunities
 Universal de facto adoption
took five years

The Privacy  Well understood structure
Policy is  what data we keep
well  what we do with it
known  how we protect it
 and what you can do

The Privacy  Peer pressure to have a
Policy in privacy policy
action  Privacy is a trustmark
 Disclosure more important
than specific pledges
 Pledges varies by industry,
jurisdiction, risk
 Link from every home page

The  Needs a clear,
Portability understandable structure
Policy  Disclosure first

Privacy  Pros
Metaphor
 Established, Proven
Pros & Cons
 Workflow for creating
policies is understood
 Cons
 Looks like work
 Comes from risk avoidance
more than opportunity
seizure

3.
Portability is
Identity’s Creative Commons

Identity’s  Creative Commons simplified
CC license intellectual property licensing
 Focus
 Most common uses
 Most common concerns
 Three yes/no questions, eight
combinations
 Iconography for visual quick
read

Identity’s  Can the DPP do for social
CC license data portability what CC did
for intellectual property?
 What are the most
common uses? Most
common concerns?
 Can we reduce them to a
handful of binary
questions?

Portability as  Pros
CC License  Highly effective within some
Metaphor communities
Pros & Cons  Objective symbolism
 Cons
 Applied to a fairly static domain
(intellectual property) instead
of a rapidly changing one
(social media)
 Strong, famous evangelists
behind launch and first five
years

4.
Portability is Net Neutrality
consumer and citizen protection principles
rebalance power

Portability  Net Neutrality was framed as
as Net  Consumer protection
 Civil liberty / Democracy 2.0
Neutrality
 Consumer protection
 ISPs exercisingmonopoly
power to control what you see
and say, to make more money
 Freedom
 ISPs shouldn’t be allowed to
interfere with speech or action

Portability  Standing up for the average
as person
Consumer  Get back control over your
Power online communication and
information and
relationships

Portability  Freedom to come and go
as a Civil without your onlife held
Liberty hostage by a site
 Meaningful freedom to
 Assemble
 Speak
 Due process
 Seek meaningful redress

Portability as  Pros
Net Neutrality
 Defines right and wrong
Metaphor
Pros & Cons  Emotional ties to powers,
liberties, freedoms
 David v. Goliath
 Cons
 Confrontational

Picking the Best of Metaphors
for a Portability Policy
Finding the Rose

What can  Our relationship
 Life cycles
Portability  Emotional connection
Policies take  The new privacy policy
from each of  Disclosure standards
these  Ease of Generation
metaphors?  Identity’s Creative Commons license
 Find the right dimensions
 Committed evangelists
 Net Neutrality
 Acknowledge power is out of balance
 Rights and Freedoms are easily understood
 Consumer protection makes proponents
look virtuous, opponents look evil

See also:  http://blog.DataPortability.org
 http://wiki.DataPortability.org
 http://twitter.com/dataportability
 http://wiki.dataportability.org/x/mIRE
 Google groups
 LinkedIn

About me  Phil Wolff
sits on the DataPortability
Project Steering Action Group
 Contact info: evanwolf on
twitter and Skype.
editor@SkyepJournal.com
+1-510-444-8234
 Disclaimer: my thoughts, not
necessarily those of the DPP
(http://dataportability.org)