Let everybody interact in the way they want. That is freedom of choice. And the secret lies in the interfaces and protocols. I can read email in many different

Let everybody interact in the way they want. That is freedom of choice. And the secret lies in the interfaces and protocols. I can read email in many different ways. That is the freedom the protocol gives me. It is open, well documented and wide spread. We should strive to support open protocols instead of closed APIs which are controlled by single companies. Then everybody can use whatever User Interface they prefer and everbody can come up with new User Interfaces any time. The AIM/ICQ/MSN vs. XMPP world illustrates this principle. Even if someone supports the closed protocols with a multi protocol client, the support eventually gets deliberately broken by the controlling party. Protocols are way more important than the currently popular implementation of it.