Every week it seems like the debate over access to, portability of and privacy over user data on the social web has reached new heights. It's only going to get louder though, just as discussions about other forms of economics will never be resolved.

That's a part of what's going on, economics. This is an information economy, after all, and user data is clearly one of the most important currencies in circulation.

User data has been sold by ISPs, leveraged by ad networks and horded by social networks for years. Now, users are storming the castle to recapture their own booty. We argue that it's in everyone's best interest that the data be freed. Vendors have far more to gain by working to add value to freely flowing data than they do from trying to horde as much data as they can.

Facebook holds a growing amount of user data and tries to hold on to it tightly in the name of user privacy. Founding CEO Mark Zuckerberg told us in an interview at SXSW that he agrees with the principals of data portability but believes that Facebook has to s