The more I think about the issue of ownership of community data– particularly when the community essentially is the data– the more convinced I am that we need to take a closer look at the inherent assumptions (and contradictions) of current online community models.

Ning, being the kind of next generation of remixing app that it is, really brings this issue to the fore. To the point that I am uncomfortable recommending its use for any serious endeavor despite being impressed with what it would allow people to do.

If the people and the data are the community, then it doesn’t make sense to me that the owner of a site gains de-facto ownership of the data when it is submitted. It doesn’t make sense because it is a traditional way of viewing ownership and it doesn’t need to be that way. Ning, for example, already stores the data in a central data store. An individual application is just one way of arranging and viewing that data, upon which multiple applications by different people can come to rely. Those are all good things.

If an application– a data structure– disappears, which is something I think should be allowed to happen, there’s no reason the data has to. Just create a community called “archive” or something and associate the data with that. It seems easy enough from a technical standpoint. If a community is active enough for the sudden data loss to matter, then I’d have guidelines that strongly recommend methods for transferring application ownership. But if the owner is resistant, my data shouldn’t be lost, particularly in downstream applications. That’s old, one-way web thinking.

Applications like this need to be viewed as containers and structures for data– sophisticated and feature-added structures– but just containers nonetheless. I’m the one who should make any decisions about retracting my own data if it’s otherwise deemed suitable for a group of sites. Having feeds for backup isn’t enough– it makes me responsible for repopulating in all those other applications, not to mention how it would damage the date-based entries and sequencing.

[ruminate etech etech06 community property ning]