Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Google Now and data liberation

[Fabian Rodriguez]

On 06/29/2012 05:53 PM, Rudolf wrote:
>
> Google presented a new service that will be available on new versions
> of Android called Google Now. What it does is display information that
> will be relevant to you at a particular moment such as reviews and a
> map of the restaurant you're going to for lunch, what the traffic is
> like, etc.
>
> It is basically an intelligent agent to some extent. I dislike that it
> isn't free software however it made me think about data liberation.
>
> What is the point of data liberation if we can't move our data to an
> equivalent service easily? I would love a free software equivalent to
> Google Now but I'm sure that won't happen anytime soon. So what's the
> point of data liberation for me? A spreadsheet or text document with
> everything Google has on me isn't particularly useful.
>
> -Rudolf
>

Data retention is an argument against using services like Google. By
having Data Liberation, the discussion about that problem ends (or is
diverted). That's the point.

The most valuable data is the *relationships* between all those data
sets. Try to export that, and then try to reimplement that in another
service/tool. At that point to me it's very much as if there was no data
liberation at all.

So don't use their service. Is there an equivalent now? I don't see the
rush to have one. Will there be? I doubt it, Google now will most
probably rely on you using their phone with the originally shipped
software, with all services active and contributing to build the web of
data needed to have useful profile to present you relevant information.

Consider services like delicious, Twitter, Facebook and the alternatives
with free, open source software (in my case, I use Semantic Scuttle,
Identi.ca and Diaspora, respectively). Were/are they available,
feature-equivalent, and with all your networks built-in? No, it takes
some time, and mostly, effort on our side to build the same
relationships between our data, but using services where such data is
100% under our control *and* ownership.

Cheers,

Fabian Rodriguez
http://fsf.magicfab.ca

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