I love the 43things design and think it has enormous potential. As Digital Media Manager for a UK charity called Teacher Support Network, I could see setting up a version of 43things that targets teachers and what they’re working on, letting them match with other projects other teachers are working on.

Ning, Buddypress and other white label or open source social platforms are heading into a realm that is the future of networking sites. And the open-ended tool that is Facebook is taking things in an entirely different direction, making its tools more widely ported, available and easily tailored for niched uses.

43things, places, etc., could get this platform more widely used and improved through something I’d call 43open. Using 43open, a white label version of 43things, people could create their own 43 sites under GPL or Creative Commons use licenses. Being that it would be in the open source realm, users would be responsible for supporting one another via support forums. Much like other models, if 43things wanted to pursue it, they could offer a paid version that would be installed and supported for an organization. Otherwise, support on behalf of 43things would remain limited and easily managed.