Twitter has much-needed technology.

It’s a waste to tether it to only one user interface, one application.

It shouldn’t be hard to pivot to being totally platform given how depressed the stock is. It’s the only way we (the users) are going to have Twitter going forward, is if current management gets out of the way and lets a market develop.

The other alternative is to nationalize Twitter. Suck them into the Internet. Have the country buy the shareholders out at a reasonable price and add their technology to the base technology of the Commons.

It would have the same effect as the pivot, the technology of Twitter would become open. twitter.com could act as a clearinghouse. Charge an annual fee for an ID, just as you pay money to use a national park. 

That would be the Central Park theory of software evolution.

Net-net: If Twitter were to fail it would leave a huge hole in the Internet. Kind of like what happened when we lost Napster. I argued then that we needed to keep Napster, otherwise there would be many years of chaos in Internet music. If only...

Disclosure: I own a small amount of Twitter stock.