"App.net has the potential to be something more fundamental, like the web (HTTP) or email (SMTP)"

To do this, wouldn't you need to abandon the centralized server? Neither of these services are paid products (the hosting is paid).

A big reason that services like twitter, Facebook, and linkedin work at all is that they are centralized. Value is derived from all the accounts and data being in one place. Arguably THE reason that HTTP and SMTP work is that they are decentralized. Anyone can implement the protocol on any server.

I don't really see how app.net can straddle this divide. From what I can tell, the current aim is to be a centralized service that has an api. That still sounds to me like a paid twitter with a less restrictive api. Seems to me the focus needs to actually be on an open protocol. One that any server can implement to display a feed[1].

[1] RSS? Maybe with some more bells and whistle.