give Facebook the finger
Any of my fellow UNIX greybeards will recall one of the OG social apps of yesteryear: finger. Finger fell out of favor largely due to security problems inherent to the protocol, but I think it's worth revisiting a "finger 2.0" protocol that bears in mind modern advances in how people use the Internet and how infrastructure & services are provided. Yes, a command-line finger would be mandatory as a reference implementation, but how about smartphone apps? Watch apps? finger servers on the IoT to let people have a peek at the world through the things around them. This time around, content may be presented dynamically depending on who you are, where you are, and what client you're using.
I don't think a reimagined finger could be a Facebook killer, but it would certainly put a dent in Facebook (to say nothing of Twitter) if done right. And please, FFS, make it Open Source.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
