We Need a Social Web OS
orianmarx.com
orianmarx.com
From a point of view of an OS developer, what you talk about are still just applications, and that has nothing to do with an OS.
You're just making a confusion if you're trying to invent the new meaning of the names. Is that your goal?
As others have pointed out, though, an open social protocol would quickly degenerate into a wretched hive of ads and spam. The underlying problem to solve is identity, which the existing social networks attempt to solve through real-name policies, social conventions, and pro-active policing, to various degrees of success.
This is going to be unpopular to say on HN, but there would be upsides to a government-issued internet ID card, that allowed to someone to declare unambiguously which actual human they are (ideally on an opt-in basis).
Would the inevitable abuses of this power be worth the benefits? Probably not. But authenticated identity is the core problem that needs to be solved for an open social protocol to really work; without it, you're trying to craft TCP/IP without IP addresses.
What matters is not the unique identifier; the real benefit is the threat of punishment for fraud, and the "single source of truth", whether that's a government, or something else. We have this, for better or worse, in other aspects of communication infrastructure (names, addresses, phone numbers), but there is no equivalent for the web (except perhaps for domains). I'm glad that an anonymous information-sharing network exists, but I think a non-anonymous flavor (AOL : www :: Facebook : ???) would be a societal boon as well.
http://jbalogh.me/2012/01/30/push-notifications/
What's going on with what get on the front page lately?
But yes, for everyone else, I agree with you.
PS. If someone does create one, I suggest "Sockpuppet OS" for the name.
Idea, long page views might make watching a video ad before the dashboard appears acceptable..paid version no ad..