I doubt if FOSS will even make a dent in Facebook, as the Free Software web2.0-apps-ecosystem is very different from that of FOSS desktop/server-software: 0) I

I doubt if FOSS will even make a dent in Facebook, as the Free Software web2.0-apps-ecosystem is very different from that of FOSS desktop/server-software: 0) It is harder to raise money for FOSS, especially in the startup-phase (so if competing endeavors are closed, they will have the financial edge, which could be an important disadvantage if you're doing something innovative...). A) If it is a centralized Affero GPLed app: 1) There is a barrier to installation on local/development machines (try getting your first time hesitant developer to install MySQL, ruby and a host of gems). A barrier that is smaller / nonexistent for desktop software, because to use it at all, you have to install it. 2) There is a barrier to updates, a fix somebody applied to his local copy still has to be checked and deployed to the server(s) before he even can use it (if it is a feature relying on his data on the production-server). B) If it is a GPLed P2P web-app: 1) There are critical mass issues for updates of social functionality (how to get most people to to update? and how to coordinate different version). If updates are automated or even go through a package manager, you're back at A2. 2) The required architecture will be much more complicated compared to centralized apps with the same functionality (at least while the centralized app is small enough to run on one server / cluster). Not that it is absolutely impossible, but I tried (option A, a forum/wiki-type app) and was, to say the least, not wildly successful :) (though we/I did get a decent app completed, and I'm doing fine otherwise) (could just be the things I was building, ymmv): http://foundation.logilogi.org/ http://foundation.logilogi.org/ Oh, and naturally, for social networks it is even harder, as there is an additional critical mass effect in the network itself (not useful as long as most of your friends are still hanging out on FB, and unlike us programmers / geeks, they generally don't care that much about code and FOSS-freedoms, and at best mildly about data-freedoms. They are mostly happy about not having to worry about software and updates at all...).