Twitter Shrugs

In December, we discussed, “Where will Twitter go from Here?” In preparation for the New Year 2009, Twitter made it clear that it intends to become a revenue-generating site. The question was how to do that.

What we’ve seen since then is more and more third parties seeking to create revenue-generating third-party applications based largely on Twitter. Examples are PostLater.com, BudURL.com, SocialToo.com, and Dossy’s Twitter Karma, all of which offer free versions of their service with paid upgrades or requests for donations.

Well, Twitter recently made some changes and upgrades, which rendered many of the third-party applications temporarily inoperable, and panic has ensued. Some folks are really angry.

While I’m a little bit disappointed that I can’t check my Twitter Karma this morning, I can’t honestly say I’m surprised to see this happening. While some fantastic software has been developed using the free open-source development model, it was a Utopian idea that was not sustainable, as evidenced by the fact that truly industrious developers have been using the the free software only until they can figure out how to tweak it and make a profit.

Other problems innate with the open-source environment is that there is no way to protect truly unique ideas, and no practical way to stop spammers and hackers from using the code for nefarius purposes.

So what’s the answer? More regulation? Regulation has a long history of creating more problems than it solves, so I won’t be supporting any moves in that direction.

Over the next few years, however, what I believe we’ll be seeing is a clash of civilizations – the relative anarchy of Web 2.0, vs. the civilized world, where people are able to copyright their creations, and are required to take responsibility legally for those creations, and are able to make a profit on those creations.

Will this increased involvement of the legal system in the Web 2.0 environment lead us down the path of socialism or capitalism?

Also see:

• Twitter OAuth “Temporarily Disabled”, Developers Left Hanging
• Web 2.0 is…(a lie).
• Where will Twitter go from Here?