[LinuxBender]

In my opinion, the solution isn't to initially replace the messaging platform. Rather, user metadata management first and foremost must be addressed. There needs to be a way for people to have something like OpenLDAP+SAML that is federated. User metadata can then be used on whatever shiny app is cool at the time.

Messaging platforms come and go, but the people are what remain fairly constant. Applying this logic also means you can give people multiple options and use the same logins on multiple applications.

If I were to take a first stab at this, I would probably use something like the OpenLDAP fork ReOpenLDAP [1] and use my domains and my friends domains to set up master-master replication. Each domain owner is master for their domain. I have no idea what saml2 provider I would put in front of it. This system would store password hashes, ssh public keys, contact information, bio (used for signatures and "about me" boxes).

There should be a combination of web API's and a web UI to self service account info so that anyone can maintain, update or otherwise remove their data when they want.

[1] - https://github.com/leo-yuriev/ReOpenLDAP