I realized why I want App.net or something like it (tent.io?). Maybe my answer can help someone else wrap their head around why they want it.<p>I have been kicking around this idea for a utility to help people communicate in cooperatives and other small organizations. (Yes, I'm planning groupware. Forgive me.) These organizations tend to need much less immediate communication, and much more broadcasting. They also tend to be susceptible to stress because house business <i>is</i> personal sometimes.<p>People broadcast policy proposals, ask for rides, ask questions about specific topics like kitchen maintenance, etc. One thing that people seem to prefer, also, is the ability to organize, sort, filter on their end.<p>I was a junior in HS with dialup when Twitter debuted at SXSW, so I didn't get it then; now, though, I see that just about all asynchronous communication is tantamount to merging, filtering, accumulating, and transforming lists / streams. Thanks to optional metadata, you can use the same transport to allow applications to communicate. Or let applications read the human data. Etc.<p>And App.net is that from what I gather. Maybe it was obvious to everyone but infrastructure like this is potentially a valuable commodity. It's not just about micro-blogging. There will, hopefully, be many awesome applications of sending data and queries out into the ether and things getting to where they need to be.