I recently wrote some “interoperable visions” but made a shorter version for ‘less technical’ people:
Would it make sense to point Google Docs at your Twitter likes? Or Google Maps at your contact list? Or a flashcards app at your music collection?
The more technical version has reflections on my experience using personal data stores since 2018, perceived limitations, dreaming about possibilities i’d like to build into my own apps:
This data is somehow 100% mine, but as if I can’t touch it or do much without technical expertise, as if I don’t really have it even though it’s right there; this is in some way strangely similar to having it stuck in one of those silos that I meant to avoid in the first place.
I would appreciate ‘more technical’ people talking about this topic with anyone outside tech but using tech, perhaps feeling lack of agency. Let’s understand the gaps and help make our alternatives more inclusive?