So let's talk about some actual real problems: First, network reliability. I'm now a T-Mobile subscriber, which means that when I have network it's screamingly fast. This is an improvement over AT&T, which gave me network in more places, but it wasn't ever fast enough to do anything with.
We need a good store and forward mechanism for intermittent network connectivity.
`I also have a whole bunch of digital photos slung out over my home server, my colo server, laptops, desktops, tablets, cell phones... asset management, understanding different resolutions and different versions of the same document, is a huge problem looking for a solution.
Also related to that network connectivity issue, we need better mechanisms for fail-over, aliases which can say "give me the closest version of that", without doing as much DNS wankery as we have to do right now.
And that store-and-forward mechanism needs to also fulfill the space that NNTP used to and that RSS has been doing for a while now: We need to move beyond polling and to notifications.