> I would really like to see the concept of an image board divorce itself from Japanophilia/otakuism.
I don't really know what you mean by that. To an extent, that has already happened, and the software is free to get and sometimes even free to set up, so the option is there. Thus, it ultimately depends on whether the people want this and what it exactly should be that they want, what kind of image board site / community / whatever. But what's in expressing this devotional desire for "an image board" to "divorce itself from Japanophilia/otakuism"? I mean, who cares? Not even the people who will set the coming imageboards up themselves. Why should they?
> The image board concept is just not well-known enough in the west outside the anime community for anything to really happen yet, though. That needs to change, but I am not sure how.
Porn. Prior to my whole experience with futaba and all, I have already seen European-based porn trade sites set up image-sharing software that was very similiar to what your new Kareha (http://wakaba.c3.cx/sup/kareha.pl/1106099822) was like, although much more primitive, restrictive and under the label of "user galleries".
And if this takes up in popularity again, it will probably start with a lot of porn, too. Wasn't there even one gang of pedo trolls on iichan in its latter days that kept posting screenshots of their little pedophilia Wakaba they set up (I am talking photos of real children here)?
We may not like this, users of the "classic imageboards" and their developers and admins alike, but porn, even the most vile sort of it, will probably drive this to become really popular - or infamous. Things we don't like, contentwise, will come up eventually. And there's little for each one of us to do or say in regards to what should be the content of these imageboards or in what proportions.
Probably the best thing to do for each one of us is to "keep up the good work". Keep on posting on the communities you like. Set up and maintain imageboards you think serve good and enjoyable purposes. Get in contact and engange with the community (as difficult as that may be in the middle of sitewars, flames, trolls, etc.). Spread the gospel to other media. Just anything to keep the things we love about this whole spiel as alive and vital as possible for us.