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The problem though is that OpenID is currently just a framework. There is no way to prevent people from making 100 accounts, which is still the problem. Once we have a way of making sure each person only has one account, even if we don't know who that person is and can't identify them in any way, then and only then will social software be able to break through this quality barrier that it is currently capped it. I wrote about one way of doing this here, and there are other ways. Hopefully within the next ten years we can have this problem solved, to enable the next generation of web apps that aren't even possible today.

From something I wrote on this subject:

The "killer apps" of tomorrow's mobile infocom industry won't be hardware devices or software programs but social practices. --Howard Rheingold

In his recent essay, Paul Graham pans Web 2.0 because it can't be used to make predictions. Paul is right; the reason is that we have been classing Web 2.0 by its technology instead of its social implications.

Because, really, who gives a shit about technology? I don't care about technology, I care about me. I don't want to know how Web 2.0 will get me AJAX, I want to know how Web 2.0 well get me laid.

When caught in the throes of our meme 2.0 ideations, it should be the social over the technological that inspires. When we do this, not only can we make falsifiable predictions, but we can make actionable business plans and compelling emotional appeals as well.

So if you think it's too late to start a billion dollar AJAX business... You're right. But don't worry; the revolution isn't over, it's barely begun.

Instead, I propose that:

Web 1.0 is about allowing individuals to create and share ideas.
Web 2.0 is about allowing groups to create and share ideas.
Web 3.0 is about allowing societies to create and share ideas.

The article speculates about the future of blogging and how digital identity will have a much more profound impact on the Web than AJAX and that stuff. This is because, as Howard Rheingold said, "The "killer apps" of tomorrow's mobile infocom industry won't be hardware devices or software programs but social practices."

Anyway, if you are interested you can read the rest.

Not that this guy was the first to postulate that interconnectedness would change culture irrevocably in the near-future timeframe either. But I think the essay linked above cuts a little closer to the core issue; Businessweek just now caught on to what has been a rolling snowball in the internet world for what, 4 years now?

See "Subsequent Message". I believe my recollection to be
correct, and that has corroborated it, inasmuch as matters of
fact are subject to democratic vote. You are confusing the
concept of "using Google to check the internet before asking a
dumb question" with inappropriate use of technology. I wasn't
asking about it; I already knew myself. There is a lesson here
about appropriate use of technology. Why would you disbelieve me
and believe some remote yahoo whom you found using Google? (I
would actually call "Riven has been released since last Christmas
1997" as perhaps not exactly contradicting me). Why don't you go
"*Ahem*" at *him*, and quote *me*? The answer is that you are
crediting technology (of Google) with some strange mystical power
of validation that you believe is somehow superior to a person's
reinforced memory. Especially in the subsequent message, pHatidic
remembered correctly because his memory was reinforced (my memory
was reinforced by repetition and wasn't quite as good -- I only
remembered "October 1997").

Therefore you are confusing the concept of "using Google to check
the internet before asking a dumb question" with inappropriate
use of technology.

I'm reminded of my friend who checked my directions to my place
using Mapquest, and got lost because he believed it over me, when
Mapquest happened to be mistaken about my local area. He
committed inappropriate use of technology in believing it was
some magical spell and not something made up by fallible people
somewhere.

I'm also reminded of the play "Sorry Wrong Number", which may
have come out in the 1950s; I'm not sure (this discussion could
go on for a while...). Inappropriate use of technology -- the
belief that the technology of the telephone was a substitute for
human values -- led to the tragic death of the main character at
the end.

----Subsequent Message-----
  Myst and Riven (Score:2)
by pHatidic (163975) on Saturday September 03, @08:31PM (#13473527)
(http://www.alexkrupp.com/)

I remember I bought a new computer just to play Riven. We
upgraded from our LC to a Performa. The day it came out
(Halloween) my friend and I had "Riven Day" instead of going
trick or treating.

did I mention that I work for Sony designing PS3

Not in CT you don't.