From a modest proposal
One of the interesting suggestions that have come out as a result of this is to create a decentralized version of Twitter – much on the lines of IRC – to bring about much better uptimes...
I would take the idea a lot further and argue that all social communication products should gradually turn into aggregation points.
Ownership of communication is the key feature described in the above post from 2008. Both message origin and social connections are managed on a dashboard driven, user centric universe.
I like the basic idea, but it is a goal without a plan. How do you get from where the social web is now to there? The problem is primarily a social one, then economic, and to a much lesser extent technology (UI design, then protocol).
One way to cultivate a community (or company) is a shared vision. The community is organized by it's desire for a distributed social web. The social network is defined by user ownership. If you can help found and sustain that community, you will have a chance of achieving the distributed social network.
Related posts:
open social web