Have you experienced “data lock-in”?

Posted on behalf of Martin de Saulles:

Have you experienced data lock-in issues with any Web services?

I am currently writing an article on the issues of data lock-in with Web services such as blogs, wikis, social networking, content management and collaborative tools. I am interested in conducting some short interviews (you can choose to remain anonymous) with anyone who has experienced issues (either at a personal or work level or both) with getting their data out of such services for either transferring to a different service, for back-up purposes or because you wanted to close your account with the service down.

The interview would only be a few questions and could be done by email or telephone – whatever suits you.

Thanks in advance.

Martin De Saulles
Senior Lecturer
University of Brighton, UK
mrd@brighton.ac.uk

UKeiG now on Facebook

UKeiG now has a group on Facebook, which is open to both members and non members of UKeiG. Head on over there if you would like to discuss anything arising from the UKeiG Web 2.0 workshops, or anything at all about electronic information.

Review of desktop readers

Following on from her Feed Reader tip-bits, Patti Biggs has reviewed three desktop readers. Feedreader, RSS Bandit and Omea went under the microscope and Patti has given RSS Bandit the thumbs up as her default reader. Omea, which is my own personal favourite, is described as “a ‘Rolls Royce’ of feed readers” but a “bit overwhelming for the beginner”. I would agree with that finding. It does take a while to find your way around Omea’s features and many people do not need them, but for me nothing else has come close to supplanting it as my favourite reader.

Karen Blakeman