Word Press, Data Portability, DISO and Social Networks

WordPress got into the social networking game by absorbing BuddyPress this month. BuddyPress is a WordPress plug in set that creates a social network out of a multiple user WordPress installation (WordPress MU). Adding BuddyPress to the WordPress family is a smart move on the part of WordPress to stay fresh and relevant.

Social networking is reaching such a saturation point that a dedicated social network trying to compete with the big dogs like MySpace and FaceBook may not stand a chance. Even so, everyone wants to be connected to their friends online, and BuddyPress gives them a way to do that on a smaller scale, thought their own blog.

BuddyPress makes it easy to create your own social network right on top of Word Press, an easy to use Open Source blog platform that holds its own against heavy hitters like Movable Type. It's fast becoming one of the most popular blogging platforms around. To be able to create a network of your blog readers, a network of friends or colleagues who blog, something simple like an alumni network and more, all in just a few steps is extraordinary.

WordPress was smart. It didn't so much purchase BuddyPress as absorb it. Andy Peatling is the creator of BuddyPress, and Automattic, the parent company for WordPress and WordPress MU, simply offered him a better place to work on it. WordPress recently came into some funding, so it was the perfect time to branch out and bring some new blood in.

BuddyPress and WordPress are being accused of bucking against the new technology darling: Data Portability. WordPress has been the focus of a movement called DISO (distributed social networking and data portability based on the WordPress platform), and the people behind DISO are upset at the absorption of BuddyPress into the Automattic fold. DISO members claim that BuddyPress is not truly a distributed social network.

At the risk of alienating the forward thinking minds behind Data Portability… who cares? I understand the appeal of Data Portability to a few people with mass amounts of contacts like Scoble and others with thousands and thousands of contacts and friends. I can see a future need for it even for the little users like myself who only have hundreds of contacts and friends online. I will appreciate it once it gets here.

In the meantime, people who have other, more valuable projects that have been ignored and fallen by the wayside in the great quest for something only the top ten percent of computer users want. One of the most vocal advocates for Data Portability is Chris Saad, the guy who brought us Particls - a great program. Or, it could be great, if his attention wasn't elsewhere, Twittering and blogging endlessly about Data Portability.

Do I think BuddyPress is cutting edge social networking technology? No, absolutely not. But I do think it has promise as a great feature set for WordPress MU and as a counterbalance to the Data Portability movement. Maybe a smaller, less distributed network option is just what is needed to bring focus back to finishing the great applications that the advocates of Data Portability started, and in many cases abandoned. Meanwhile, I'll be watching what Andy does with BuddyPress now that he is working in the Automattic offices.

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