Reflecting on the tools one uses
Benjamin Trott, from Six Apart, wrote about Open Data which started getting me to think about how certain companies write software to lock you into using their software only!
For me, it's always been easier to trust a tool that allows me to get my data out if I watch to switch tools.
And so, since day one, Movable Type and TypePad have had the ability to Export your posts--not because we wanted people to leave, but because we wanted people to stay.
Many tools do not allow you to easily transfer your data out of them. For example Clickatell's Messenger-PRO stores the SMS messages which you have sent using the programme in a database which one cannot easily extract contacts when you can export elements of the sent SMS data. How difficult would it be to have added CSV export of your contacts to the software? Not much more I'm sure, seeing that you're half way there with the exporting of certain elements of your outbox. Having to manually export your contacts for example requires one to manually write down the contacts details to another file rather than being able to click on a 'export contacts' button and Bob's your uncle.
In Movable Type's case one can easily run queries against the various tables and import the data and reformat the content of entries on one's weblog till the cows come home, as you have the raw data and can do what you please with it.