ARPA2 phase 3: ServiceHub
=========================

>   *The ServiceHub phase establishes a plugin mechanism for online services.
>   Given that one manages a domain name at a hosting provider of choice,
>   there may already be a set of services; but ServiceHub enables plugging
>   services provided by other, more specialised providers to appear under
>   the domain name.*

This is the third phase of ARPA2, and it is targeted at making online
services pluggable.  The result is that a basic identity provider can host
the IdentityHub processes, perhaps with a few basic services, and that
anyone else on the Internet can offer plugins that can be added to these
domain names.  Doing so would enable the centrally managed users, groups,
roles, aliases and pseudonyms to be used with those plugins, so there is
an obvious need for some connection during such collaborations between
hosting providers.

We believe that
[splitting the hosting market](http://internetwide.org/blog/2014/11/19/back-to-hosting.html)
is helpful to achieve specialisation.  This should be helpful in stopping
the cut-throat competition between hosting providers, who now all offer
more-or-less compatible packages.  On an Internet where it pays to
specialise, there should be more variety, more experiments and more
joy for everyone concerned.  It also leads to an Internet which is not
so easily overtaken by one central party that attempts to block out
other oferings.