The flaw in your proposal is that the problem here really isn't a technical one. Your argument seems to be "once you can export your connections that solves al

The flaw in your proposal is that the problem here really isn't a technical one. Your argument seems to be "once you can export your connections that solves all other problems because companies will have to listen to you". But that's not true. Right now you could easily create an export system using the e-mail addresses of your connections. But once you do that you can't interact with Facebook members. That's the problem with Facebook and it's root is in a business reality not a technical issue. Facebook and other social networks realize they lose their greatest (and maybe only) customer retaining mechanism if they become inter-operable. Once that happens they become a cheap commodity (much like e-mail servers are today). So becoming inter-operable means the end of companies like Facebook being major players in the industry and they aren't going to do that willingly. THAT is the problem.