Death to Silos

One thing I have grown to dislike as a user of the Internet, software, and computers in general is how many sites and software think they are great enough to be alone in their own walled garden. Or silo.

What do I mean by silo or walled garden? It basically means that users are inputing data and the site provides no way to get that data out. For example, I use web based email where all my contacts are stored. Am I able to use that contact list outside of my webmail? Why would I want the contacts? An example would be to use the addresses of some of my contacts to send Christmas cards to. Or using the contacts to find friends on any given social network.

One of the jobs I had in the past, this was a common theme. A huge enterprise with many applications. The employees had to login to each app separately. This is a pain for both the users and from an administration standpoint.

Is this a big deal? Probably not for most people. But for me, it’s a huge deal.

Over the past few years, many apps have given access to data through means of an API (application programming interface). With the API, you can use your data stored in one app in a totally different app. This is a mashup. Cool applications come from mashups. Your customers’ data is being used in ways you never would have thought of. The customer should be allowed to do whatever they want with their data.

Even export it into a rivals app. This is a big deciding factor for me. Many of my friends who aren’t technical have blogs hosted on blogger. Google has provided ways to export a user’s data to other blogging engines such as wordpress. Not that Google is going out of business anytime soon, but what if they decided to get rid of blogger all of a sudden, much like they decided to get rid of Notebook. Apparently, not many people used Google Notebook. But I did. The important thing is is that they have provided me with a way to get that data out. They always have.

When times are tough, employees get laid off. Companies big and small consolidate and possibly go under. Make sure you have access to your data. Especially, if you have invested a lot of time compiling the data.

Just something to think about.