Over the past few years we have seen a huge rise in the amount of information people are sharing on the web. Social Networks, photo sharing websites, blogs, etc… have all provided mechanisms for us to share information with ease. Unfortunately, the management of all our information and relationships still exists in silos. You have to update your blog, your LinkedIn profile, your Facebook profile, your Flickr account, Etc. You have relationships with friends, family, and co-workers that overlap in a Venn diagram that resembles the third symbol from Zoso. Frankly, managing this mess takes too much darn time.

Tools to help manage your social graph are popping up, but what the world needs is a set of standards that puts structure around the sharing of data. RSS is not enough. We need standards for describing relationships, authentication, identity, messaging, and more. We have talked at our shop about this time and time again but I recently came across the website Dataportability.org that is dedicated to Standardized Data Portability. The site lists a number of standards movements with links to some helpful resources and initiatives.

These sorts of initiatives will help us as consumers and as marketers. I’d encourage everyone to check them out.

UPDATE - For anyone that has followed Scoble’s temporary exile from Facebook, he announced today that Facebook has joined the Dataportability.org Workgroup. The optimist in me in rejoicing. The pessimist says “Big deal… tell me when I can export my data.”

No game of buzzword bingo would be complete without the term “Web 2.0.” However, as much of a cliche as it may be, it is one of the most important terms that a corporate marketer should understand. So while the web is chock-full of definitions for this term, the following article illustrates an interpretation designed specifically for the corporate marketer.

So, lets get to it. Web 2.0 means one thing, “accessibility.” Accessibility in this regards comes in 3 varieties:

1. Making yourself accessible to others.

2. Making your audience accessible to you.

3. Making your audience accessible to each other.

Simple enough right? It is basically what the web was designed to do in the first place. The recent movement and buzz around the term has just been a refocus on the web’s original intent. So lets dive into each a little deeper and see how each of these concepts manifest themselves as marketing tactics and strategies.

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I’ve spent the past six months of my time at home being a web user.

Before that, I was a web creator, reading books and blogs, and catching up with current development trends. I decided to take a step back and study myself, hopefully, as an everyday user.

I’m saying ‘user’, I think, as it applies to a normal person, not a developer. Developers look at structure, technology, design, opinions with which to agree or disagree with, ‘cool stuff’… And Details.

I found that I had a pattern developing as a user, while out of my usual mode of interactive thought. I’d check my email. If there were no emails, I’d think ‘well, that’s no good’, and move on. Then, I’d check my MySpace and Facebook profiles. Again, if there was nothing new there, I’d move on to my RSS reader to check for updated news and blog posts. I caught myself being a Lurker. A Lurker is someone who simply looks, moves on, all while using up precious bandwidth. Perhaps my brain was empty.

I remember preaching the Web 2.0 Gospels a year ago. A place where everyone will interact, and generate free content.

Now, I’d probably say, anyone who’s interested enough to participate will feed the 2.0 machine. Those people are doing the work for the Lurkers. But as a developer, I ask myself, is that enough?

Hey, Lurkers need love. They need to feel informed, wanted, and have their anxieties washed away.

I’d like to take my experience as a Lurker and make content for other Lurkers. A writing style for passive people. Bring some smiles to some faces as they skim copy. Make them stop at certain important keywords and become educated or entertained. Wipe away the Lorem Ipsum.

I want to be a de-Lurking engineer.

Lorem Ipsum.