And the walls come down? Google and Facebook have joined Dataportability.org!

Yesterday, it was announced that representatives from Google, Facebook and Plaxo have joined the Dataportability.org workgroup.

This is a huge step towards an open, interoperable social web; Google and Facebook are probably the two largest collectors and holders of data (social and otherwise) on the web, and they have been among the most reticient about sharing their data.