It seems that groups like Data Portability Org believe that Open Standards (e.g. APIs) are sufficient to create portability. I've long argued that open standards are necessary but not sufficient for this. If you want portability you will need open sourced implementations of such standards.
Why does the phrase "standardized Data Portability is the next great frontier for the web" feel like a re-run of the SQL saga?
I wonder what odds I can get on us ending up with implementations that "are inconsistent and, usually, incompatible between vendors".
Don't get me wrong, open standards are better than none but if you want portability (whether for your data or your application) then open standards are not going to be enough.