Will Linked-in open up?

Sunday, June 24, 2007 by Dave Winer.

Apparently Linked-in is considering its options as a platform with an API. The reason: Facebook, newly open to developers, is stealing its thunder. It would be cool if they just implemented an identity service that managed relationships between users, and allowed developers to define the relationships. Rather than incrementally one-upping each other by being slightly more open, why not go all the way, and operate an indentity service for your own application and for everyone else. This would put Linked-in (or whoever) at the center of Internet 3.0.  

A few days ago, I wrote about explosive deconstruction of social networks, and said I didn't know how it was going to happen but it was definitely going to happen. I posited that perhaps Twitter was enough of an identity system to serve as the core, and since then I have been able to latch a compelling app onto Twitter, one that captured a lot of people's imaginations in less than 48 hours. So that tells me that Twitter is probably sufficient (I have to finish the implementation).