Hung Truong: The Blog!

Questions About Facebook And Data Portability

Something that is usually on my mind, either in the forefront or the back of it, is data portability. I like “owning” the data that I create, whether it’s from a tweet or a Facebook status message, or even more mundane like the bit of knowledge via a Last.fm scrobble that I listened to Dexter Gordon’s Wave at 3:27am on August 16, 2007 (I’m thinking this is in GMT?). The point is that data that I create is my property. I would go as far as to say that the online interactions I have, like friends’ activity that I comment on and interact with, is also my property. For example, a friend’s status message that I reply to and that ends up being a long thread.

Some services make gathering my data easy. Twitter has a dead simple API and so does Last.fm. I’ve been toying around with gathering location data from Twitter, embedded in photos I take on my phone, and other sources. One website that still confuses me a bit with regards to their policies is Facebook.

About two years ago, there was a semi-large fuss made over Facebook joining a Data Portability organization. Apparently it was sort of a me-too move to copy MySpace. Since then, there’s been a Stream API created and you can actually grab stuff from your “activity stream” from Facebook.

The thing is, the rules are super vague and contradict each other. For example, the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities states that

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings.

This makes it seem like I have the right to collect that content and information that I create, since I “own” it and have control over it. Yet the Developer Policy states:

• Storing and Using Data You Receive From Us
  1. You must not store or cache any data you receive from us for more than 24 hours unless doing so is permitted by the offline exception, or that data is explicitly designated as Storable Data.
  2. You must not give data you receive from us to any third party, including ad networks.
  3. You must not use user data you receive from us or collect through running an ad, including information you derive from your targeting criteria, for any purpose off of Facebook, without user consent.
  4. Unless authorized by us, your ads must not display user data – such as users’ names or profile photos – whether that data was obtained from us or otherwise.
  5. You cannot convert user data you receive from us into Independent Data (e.g., by pre-filling user information with data obtained from the API and then asking the user to save the data).
  6. Before making use of user data that may be protected by intellectual property rights (e.g., photos, videos), you must obtain permission from those who provided that data to us.
  7. You must not give your secret key to another party, unless that party is an agent acting on your behalf as an operator of your application, but you must never give your secret key to an ad network. You are responsible for all activities that occur under your account identifiers.

This basically says that I have to delete any information gathered within 24 hours. Facebook is making the assumption here that users are not developers and vice versa. I’m not interested in gathering other users’ data; I just want my own. And yet here are two conflicting statements.

I’ve already used the Facebook Stream API in the past to collect my data. While the policy states this is not allowed, it’s basically unenforceable. What bothers me a bit is that it is against policy for me gather my own data using Facebook APIs. Twitter allows this, and even goes a step beyond by suggesting that developers cache data to improve performance. To their credit, Google has a “Data Liberation Front” whose purpose is to keep an eye on products and keep data import/export for users as a priority.

I see data portability as a big issue while considering the natural lifecycle of a social networking website. As I use Facebook less and less, I still want to have a connection with those who are on it, and I want to maintain a record of what happened. I hate to think that while I “own” this data, I have no right to access it, especially if I decide to leave the service.

I started writing this post before realizing that Facebook’s annual f8 conference is actually going on today! I guess I can look towards today’s news to see if anything has been announced re: data portability.

EDIT: Well that was fast! I guess they removed the 24 hour limit thing during the keynote today. What this means directly to data portability is still up in the air, though.

Fly Me To The Mars

I had a dream last night that me and my Mom won a trip to Mars. I think we won a contest that allowed us to take a tourist flight to Mars, kind of like how people are paying big bucks to fly into orbit right now. When we got onto the shuttle (which seemed kind of small and had a random tour guide driving, like it was a bus), I realized that it’d probably take a while to get there. Like, more than 24 hours. I think that was a low estimate…

At this point I really wish I had done more preparation for the trip, like maybe getting some audiobooks loaded up or at least bringing a book to read. I kinda just showed up (my Mom might’ve caused us to be late; this happens in real life). During our trip I kept feeling kind of dreadful. Like, what if we don’t come back (it was the first ever tourist trip to Mars)? And what if our pilot bus driver guy gets killed?

Our bus driver/guide said that once we get to Mars, it’ll be really small, so we all have to keep our eyes peeled for it. I thought this was a load of crap, because it’s actually a pretty big planet! I think this also meant that we wouldn’t actually go onto Mars; we’d just fly over and look at it, and then go home.

I guess we didn’t go directly to Mars; we stopped at a space station or something first. In the space station we had to form a huge line, for some reason. I remember reading some really specific headlines when glancing at a newspaper. One was about how the space library was charging really huge fees for interlibrary loan. Makes sense if your library is in space, I guess.

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything – Book Review

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about work, passion, fulfillment, etc. Maybe I spoke too soon when I wrote about not having a Quarterlife Crisis!

So I picked up this book, “The Element,” about discovering your passion. Ken Robinson argues that many people who are bad or disinterested in what they do just haven’t figured out what they’re good/passionate about, or have given up on pursuing the things they “should” be doing. Once people find that special something, they find a positive feedback loop. They like doing it so they do it more, and they get better at it. They probably also get external positive feedback, etc. With this virtuous cycle, they can achieve super awesome things.

That’s the book in a nutshell. And I really didn’t have to read the whole book to see all the many permutations of this idea over and over again. I think this book really could’ve been a magazine article (maybe it started as one), rather than an entire book. I feel as though Robinson was scraping the bottom of the barrel at some points trying to fill the thing up. The writing is a bit simplistic (probably to cater to the lowest common denominator demographic), and in some parts it’s just plain bad. Here are some instances that I noticed.

Upon describing a woman who dropped out of college when she had her kids, then went back to college, graduated and was offered a big job:

By then, she was having trouble in her marriage, and she filed for divorce. This was a difficult time for Susan.

Really, Ken? No shit! Another completely non-sequitur to start a paragraph in a section about a crisis in human resources:

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, there was hardly anyone around.

It really sounds like you could’ve pulled this quote from a third-grade World History essay. On top of the patronizing language, the author seems to go off on tangents that have barely anything to do with the subject matter.

Overall, I do agree with the basic message of the book. I just wish it was more focused and concise. Four stars for concept; two stars for content.

Cheesy Potato Cheddar Soup: Huge Success!

I had some vegetable broth left over in the fridge because I made some green chile cheese enchiladas (which kind of turned out badly). I was trying to think of a way to salvage the rest of the broth and I decided to try to make some soup.

Back in Highschool, my friend Kate used to bring potato cheese soup and she’d let me try some. I really liked it and she even wrote the recipe in the back of my yearbook, but I hadn’t tried to make it until now. It was way overdue.

I looked online for some recipes. There were quite a few variations. I read through a bunch and came up with a plan. I went to Trader Joe’s and got a few Russet Potatoes (I think a lot of people say to use Yukon Gold), an onion, and a small block of sharp cheddar cheese. It was like $6 in all or something.

I put the broth (there was about 2 or 3 cups left) into a big pot and started boiling it. I chopped up the potatoes into cubes and half the onion onto little pieces. Then I threw them in the pot and let them boil for a while. The recipes say 20 minutes or so but I think I did less, maybe 15? Then I separated the potato from the broth, and placed the pieces onto a plate. I smashed them with a fork. It was surprisingly easy to smash them. I mixed them back in with the broth and let it simmer while I grated the cheddar cheese. I added about .5 lbs (the package said .67 lbs of cheese and I used about 3/4 of it. Maybe I should’ve used less. Or maybe more?

Anyway, the cheese melted well with the soup and it turned out really good. I think maybe there was a bit too much broth, so the soup was a bit soupier than i would’ve liked. But overall it was a huge success and I’ll now be eating leftover potato cheese soup for a few days.

Bloggers: Get a Free Advance Copy of “Delivering Happiness” To Review!

I had a conversation with someone about how I still have a blog, and that it’s totally old school to write one. I mean, everyone’s microblogging, etc now, right? Well I guess I’ll have the last laugh because bloggers can get a free advance copy of “Delivering Happiness,” that Zappos guy’s book. Just go over here and tell them you blog like an old man.

A lot of the stuff from Tony Hsieh’s talk from SXSW is still permeating my brain. Like company culture, building a product that matters, etc. So I’m looking forward to reading this book, either if I get it for blogging, or if I buy it when it eventually comes out. I already have it on my to-read list on GoodReads.