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I wonder is there a route for an open/free competitor to then start with interoperability (e.g. pull your posts from FB or Twitter onto their service, allow log

I wonder is there a route for an open/free competitor to then start with interoperability (e.g. pull your posts from FB or Twitter onto their service, allow log-in via FB OAuth) and then, after your user base grows big enough, create an open protocol that your would-be competitors adopt. If you had 5 or 6 players who were all using the same protocol for social (similar to email), you might be able to remove the vendor lock-in completely as users might start looking for platforms using the protocol as a feature? Feels a bit of a pipedream, but seems like the main way that we could transition to social as a 'free' medium (as in, à la email, I can post something and you recieve a notification, or I can send you a message without knowing or caring which platform you consume your social content on.)

TeMPOraL 8y ago
Two big roadblocks: 1) How do you fund it? One of the reasons tech companies end up on the path from interop to lock-in is their funding model. If you take investor money, you may find yourself having no choice but to become user-hostile when the investors come back asking for their returns. 2) Legal barriers. Vendor lock-in isn't just about technical hurdles; a big part is use and abuse of intellectual property rights. It may not be legally possible for you to interop with Twitter and FB unless they allow you, and they will stop allowing you access the moment they realize you're a potential competitor. There's an inherent asymmetry here. It's easy for a commercial competitor to take over an open network. It's very difficult to do the reverse.
throwaway2048 8y ago
Lets not forget slack allowing IRC client access, then disabling it.