Open Cloud Mannifesto and Wine Data

Yesterday, I came across the “Open Cloud Mannifesto“. The idea behind the theory is the following:

1. Cloud providers must work together to ensure that the challenges to cloud adoption (security, integration, portability, interoperability, governance/management, metering/monitoring) are addressed through open collaboration and the appropriate use of standards.

2. Cloud providers must not use their market position to lock customers into their particular platforms and limit their choice of providers.

3. Cloud providers must use and adopt existing standards wherever appropriate. The IT industry has invested heavily in existing standards and standards organizations; there is no need to duplicate or reinvent them

4. When new standards (or adjustments to existing standards) are needed, we must be judicious and pragmatic to avoid creating too many standards. We must ensure that standards promote innovation and do not inhibit it.

5.Any community effort around the open cloud should be driven by customer needs, not merely the technical needs of cloud providers, and should be tested or verified against real customer requirements.

6.Cloud computing standards organizations, advocacy groups, and communities should work together and stay coordinated, making sure that efforts do not conflict or overlap

This got me thinking, what “cloud” applications or ideas in the wine world might benefit from this idea? My first thought, as a wine drinker, is in Social Tasting Note Sites. Having tried to move/share notes from one platform to another, I’ve been bothered by how hard and confusing it can be. This is primarily due to labeling problems and the lack of standard for categorizing wines. Adegga has the AVIN, Snooth has an open API, Cellartracker is stuck in the “excel age”, and in the end, we’re still looking for better ways to ensure that wines are labeled correctly even within each community. So really, it seems we just need some sort of “Open Labeling Manifesto”

I don’t have an answer here, but I do want to ask, wouldn’t we all – retailers, consumers, producers – benefit from some sort of “Open Labeling Manifesto”? And if so, what would it look like? Knowing that regional governments will do all in the power to avoid being helpful in this endeavor, what would it take?

Can we ever hope for some standard. It could only help. Books do, cars do, why can’t wine do it?

Just a thought and hoping for some feedback.

Ryan