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When it comes to the future of the web, there are a few incubator-style seed investors that are worth paying attention to, and New York-based Betaworks is likely at or near the top of that list — founder and CEO John Borthwick has been an early proponent of some of the foundational shifts in social media and web services, including the rise of Twitter. In the latest version of his letter to shareholders and in a phone interview with GigaOM, Borthwick said that one of the themes he finds most compelling is the ongoing tension between the open web and closed platforms like Facebook, Apple and even Twitter. And in the end, he says, open will prevail.