For better or for worse, we're well past the point where any one person, even one as well-regarded as Tim B-L, can say "I've got a thing, let's all use it." Even if he worked inside Facebook/Google/Amazon/etc., and even if he had an entire product team there behind him, his ability to get this out would be limited.

My favorite example is the Salmon Protocol from 2009/2010. The idea is that you can federate messaging systems, like Facebook or Twitter, so a reply on one system can "swim upstream" back to where the original post happened. Useful idea. Presumably solid design that appears to have been shepherded through the IETF. And.... nothing.

If anything, there's far less federation today than there was back then, when Twitter at least had an extensive API and encouraged third-party clients. Now? Not so much.