You may have heard that Twitter is locking down the terms and conditions of its API. The news was picked up by many media outlets, like the Huff Post, which reported:
“In a move to regulate how users access its microblogging service, Twitter announced new restrictions that sternly discouraged independent software developers from creating Twitter apps.”
Here we go again with another example of walled gardens, restrictions and control over how we access our data.
Just imagine this happening with email: “Google today announces that the only way to access your Google mail is through gmail.com. IMAP and POP3 services are discontinued, any other application accessing Google mail by any other means is violating the terms and conditions of Google”.
Well, we are not there yet, but getting closer – remember the old AOL, Compuserve? We are going full circle back to walled gardens, destroying what made the Web so successful: Openness, Collaboration, Mashups, Innovation. Restrictions like the ones Twitter just announced are a step backwards in time.
At Open-Xchange, we’ll continue to live by our motto “Ruthlessly Open” and push forward delivering open collaboration software with our service provider partners giving users freedom to use information as they wish without restrictions.