Regarding type #2 as described in the article: We discussed that problem a few times between the current batch of nReduce startups, more specifically there are

Regarding type #2 as described in the article: We discussed that problem a few times between the current batch of nReduce startups, more specifically there are a few social network projects (or projects with social network features) being developed and nowadays you'll have to strive for outright domination in order to have a chance with a concept like that. This is a tough proposition in a market where the willingness of users to sign up for (and invest time into) walled gardens is becoming very limited for understandable reasons. Which is sad, because I think there are still some great innovations to be made in this sector and the big players have no incentive to do so. In our case, a few of us are probably going to try and solve this problem by having a federated model that allows us to have one large userbase of people that can interact across servers. This is where my own project fits in, so I'm very excited if we can make some inroads.