MySpace will open up its data portability project broadly on Thursday, after launching it with a handpicked set of partners last month.

The project, which the company calls the MySpace Data Availability Initiative, will become publicly available so that any Web site can participate. On Thursday, MySpace expects to release the data APIs and publish documentation on its developer site.

MySpace launched the initiative in May, backed by partners Yahoo, eBay, Twitter and fellow News Corp. unit Photobucket.

The initiative's goal is to let MySpace members share their public profile data outside of the walls of the social-networking site. With this project, MySpace joins a number of Internet companies and industry groups in their pursuit of a data portability solution.

Along with social networking sites' rise in popularity, a problem has emerged: people who set up accounts in multiple social networks have to re-enter all their profile information in each one, and then manually update it. The goal of data portability is to automate this data entry and updating task and to give people control over the information, photos, videos, comments, friend contact lists and the like that they enter into these sites.

At MySpace's Data Availability announcement in May, its CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe said: "Your personal online social profile will become your Internet address. Social activity isn't about creating a walled garden. Socially dynamic Web destinations should be portable and allow users to import and export aspects of their platform."

While the goal of data portability is generally welcomed, its implementation is a complicated matter, involving all sorts of technical, legal, regulatory, privacy and security challenges. In the meantime, companies like MySpace are taking the first steps in what will be a long process to achieve full, industry-wide data portability.

For now, the MySpace effort is designed to let its members carry to other sites their public basic profile information, like their bios, interests, favorite music and movies, as well as their photos and videos. Changes made to these elements on their MySpace profiles will be dynamically updated on the third-party sites.

Users will also be able to decide to drop a site from their network of updates, which is key to privacy and security principles. MySpace members will have a control panel where they'll be able to manage their "data availability" parameters.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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