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Ultimately, the problem represents an opportunity for Internet companies. "In the end, whoever moves first to be truly open will have the advantage," Saad said. J. Trent Adams, founder and chief innovator at Matchmine, another vendor pushing for data portability, concurs. A stealthy startup could develop a clever application or service built on data portability standards and force other vendors to respond. "All of a sudden, it's the right idea, and the big boys will have to react," Adams said. In other words, Internet companies who insist on locking up their users' data to protect their businesses might soon find themselves instead stuck in the mud.

The World Wide Web Foundation seeks to advance One Web that is free and open, to expand the Web's capability and robustness, and to extend the Web's benefits to all people on the planet. The Web Foundation brings together business leaders, technology innovators, academia, government, NGOs, and experts in many fields to tackle challenges that, like the Web, are global in scale.

The DataPortability workgroup’s strongest voice, Chris Saad, noted among the DataPortability Design Principles that the mission ought to be less “fight the man” and more practical and useful goals. It will be interesting to see if the group’s finalized vision is limited to the import/export use cases, because these surely have the least potential. Otherwise, portability may not really matter to an average user, but the benefits to the user experience surely do, and I think selling DataPortability means selling the huge benefits of an efficient, distributed Web experience.

Forward-thinkers are creating innovative interfaces to your distributed data, and products are going to evolve quickly. Figuring out what portability means, what the best technologies are, and how this all looks from the user’s perspective are all pieces of a large puzzle that will strongly affect the future of the Web.