MySpace is just a giant data silo and I hate it.

I've posted about how much I loathe MySpace before, but the sheer massiveness of its success kind of aggravates me.  It's catch-22... they are successful because they're big, and they're big because they're successful.  Even though the site design and navigation is reminiscent of the year 2000, it takes at least three different screens to actually do anything, and they don't even provide RSS feeds if you host a blog there, people continue to sign up for it.

I finally realized what MySpace really is:  a giant data silo.  They have crap for a front end, but what they do have is a LOT of data, and they don't let it out to play.  If you subscribe to a blog, you can't have it as RSS, you have to go to MySpace to read posts.  If you get a message, you get a useless email telling you that you have a message and you need to go pick it up (I consider this spam).

If MySpace started exposing their data, people wouldn't have to join MySpace to participate.  Everyone would be able to subscribe using their RSS reader to read their friend's updates, read and respond to messages using email, and actually do useful things like create mashups with their data.  And MySpace wouldn't be able to control any of it.

If I'm not mistaken, isn't this kind of a big reason why AOL is currently dying a slow death?

So the question then is this:  what is a giant data silo filled with fresh, relevant data worth, and can it remain closed up forever?