[ryanthejuggler]

I think centralization is the problem here. "One central hub" just becomes susceptible to all the same problems that we face with Facebook et al. To truly create a solution to this, we need an open-source service so that people can go to spacebook.com or whatever for normal use, but properly motivated folks could run their own server too. Sort of like Diaspora, only with a centralized hosting option.

[mtbcoder]

Wouldn't RSS fit this role?

[ryanthejuggler]

Theoretically, yeah. Someone just needs to make it "cool" enough that people actually start using it as their primary method of social networking. RSS has a niche now, but it would be really cool if it were adapted to fix this problem.

[jerf]

It doesn't even really need "adaptation". It's already fairly suitable. It just needs someone to write code to use open standards instead of trying to force us in a walled garden.

I've been using RSS for 15 years now. I've watched people mock the idea in favor of $SERVICE, for a wide variety of values of $SERVICE and now most of those services are dead, Facebook already deciding what you see, and Twitter now going down this route. Meanwhile, my open-world RSS subscriptions just keep chugging along, through at least 5 different major readers I've used at various times, with subscriptions to things that update every hour and things that update every couple of months. It just keeps clocking along, delivering value, over and over and over, while walled gardens rise up, choke themselves, and die, destroying people's networks in the process. Meanwhile, I just keep on keepin' on, because I am not beholden to anybody.

(Edit: It also occurs to me to point out that my blog in its capacity as an RSS provider has survived 3 platforms now, and that the only one that required the readers to take any action was the one time I switched from the hosted service to a DNS name I control. That was less trivial though.)

There's a bajillion options that already exist... all you have to do is stop jumping into the walled garden. No matter how nice it looks. No matter how advertised it is.

Ask yourself... "Am I confident this will be here in 10 years?" RSS will be. The only way it can die is for nobody at all to use it. Will Twitter? Will Facebook? Well, I won't guarantee they won't but I'd give less than even odds for both, frankly. (At least, without some sort of major event that really changes them, like an acquisition or absorption into something else. Yes, talking about Facebook being acquired sounds strange today... a lot happens in ten years. Right, MySpace?)

[oemerax]

With Bynd you will be able to see all updates from your friends, family members, colleagues, bf/gf accross different platforms. It´s all about the "friends" who really matter.