I'm planning some social networking type functionality for PhunkyBB. What that specifically entails remains to be seen, but its annoyed me that while forums software were once very social platforms, they've evolved to be very insular.
I want to make PhunkyBB a more open system, so I hope to implement OpenID as well as making it possible to post anonymously or to post without having to register.
Also, email has emerged as a persistent mode of communication. I'm planning to setup some phunkybb mailing lists soon, and I'd like to tie those into the forums and bug tracking as well. There is an untested "subscribe to thread" function which is helpful, but it would be cool if you could email into the forums too.