Bug Labs, Chumby, Neuros, Netvibes, Facebook -- what do they all have in common? Open platforms.

Bug Labs is developing BUG, an open, modular, consumer electronics web services hardware platform. Designed for the general audience, not just the technically inclined, BUG is intended to bring to the world of hardware gadgets what the Internet, open source, XML and web services have brought to the world of software and media.

(blank) is developing (blank), an open, modular, web services platform. (Insert name of company here)

I was saying today that a possible future step for Facebook will be to release the FBML interpereter as a platform you can install on your web server and integrate into your app. Now they have a dead-simple web services framework. Will they do it? Is it smart? Can they make money? Keep hold of their audience? Achieve "Web OS" status?

BUG is supposed to have Wi-Fi, a GPS, a screen, USB, and the processor. Dave Winer had the first mention I saw of the device. He was one of the guys pushing the open-source podcast device a while back, so I'll bet he's pretty excited about this.

More thoughts on this later, for now I have to get back to work.