A few weeks ago we wrote about the Integration Proclamation, an effort by leaders in the progressive political tech industry to pinpoint technology integration and interoperability as a key issue in 2007; the site is now officially live.

Ninety-five progressive techies have signed the proclamation, which urges

progressive funders, vendors and technologists to support a collaborative effort dedicated to ensuring that our tools integrate effectively, so that we can move forward with innovative, powerful platforms that will help us win.

We've recently published a couple of pieces, one by Aristotle COO Peter Kelly and one by Media Mezcla President Ben Schaffer, that illustrate the need for interoperability and open standards among technology vendors; clients need the ability to own their data and take it with them if they use multiple vendors. While the Integration Proclamation is geared toward the same goal, what's notable is its political bent. Both of the above pieces take a distinctly non-partisan approach to the issue, hoping to positively affect an industry that serves all parts of the political spectrum.

In this light, it's surprising how partisan the Integration Proclamation is (Schaffer is even one of its authors). In the "Should I sign this Proclamation?" section, they write:

Do you use online technology to do your political or social change work?

Do you struggle with inadequate tools that can't talk to each other?

Do you spend too many hours on rote tasks like pushing data around, importing and exporting lists, or matching your databases -- or worse, are you NOT able get your job done right because such tasks are too hard?

If so, you should sign the Proclamation.

None of these issues are unique to progressives. In fact, the irony is that something that is being driven by progressive activists will inevitably benefit everyone regardless of ideology. Why limit the discussion to progressives when it's an industry-wide issue that could benefit from industry-wide support?

Tate Hausman of DotOrganize, and another author of the proclamation, told PDF:

I take it for granted that we're crafting a tool for "our side," and I think we'll all fight to ensure that anyone involved in this effort shares our values. So the only way the right would benefit from this tool is if they "stole" it (or, if its open source, take and adapt it)...

Moreover, I know (from working on this for the past year) that 90% of the work towards interoperation isn't coding -- its organizing. It's getting us all on the same page. It's building trust and bringing vendors together and all the intangible stuff that adds up to movement building. No piece of code in the world can replicate that; if the right doesn't have it, they can't "steal" it from us.

But more importantly, the benefits of sharing a solution across the progressive sector vastly outweigh the drawbacks of the *possibility* that the right will benefit from stealing our solution.

I think Hausman is right to stress that all of this talk about interoperability is really about the sharing of information and cooperation -- something the right is known to be better at. It will be interesting to see what develops out of this.

Tags: integration, interoperability, open standards

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