Identi.cating the Twitter down-time

TinyURL'd

I admit, my initial impression of identi.ca was rather bland.  Aesthetically, it was pretty bland and, at the time, I saw nothing really special about it.  What I was looking for was purely the look and feel of the system… Identi.ca, or more specifically, Laconica - the open Micro-blogging tool behind it.  This article is really more about the system, Laconica, than their canonical server, Identi.ca, but the name went really well with the pun. So what is this other than an apparent Twitter clone?  And what makes this different than all of the others? Open Source Software.  I was first excited and then rather down about the idea, and then I got happy again. Digg.com, the name in itself, and the popularity and community behind it.  MySpace, as well, had the same namesake behind it.  Besides Facebook, I think the name of Twitter has the strongest ‘label’ behind it.  As it was for IM clients for me, where I chose MSN mainly because that was just the standard.  Without installing seperate clients, I could not talk to other friends.  As do users now have tools like Pidgin and meebo, RSS is allowing users to spread their content around thusly.  Leo Laporte calls it the Network effect.  More daunting, even, than the Leo effect. Laconica is taking that idea much deeper than some API.  And here is how I mean;

1. Identi.ca has its user base powered by Laconica.  As Laconica is an OSS system, it is free to be used by any server with PHP support - so any web server.  And yes, it is running on PHP.  Twitter runs on Ruby on Rails, which along with its coding scheme (apparently, I dont know why, but this is what I hear), and with PHP they are seeing a lot more up-time, and is also a lot earier to install.  Copy & Paste, yannow?
2. It works backwards.  Laconica is to, and does, work as a micro-blogging form of OpenID.  OpenID works thusly, by letting a single username be used for multiple services.  In the following diagram, the OpenID server (there are many) relays requests from a user toward the website.  Laconica runs the same idea.  Essentially, Laconica will lets you post in other Laconica micro-blogs with your user name from another Lacronica server.   My identi.ca account could comment and subscribe to posts from my zeitgeister account.  Different website, same program.
3. It is self-hosted.  One of the major reasons, or so I would assume, that companies and the like shy away from working this micro-blogging idea is that it is all on your own servers.  It would be fantastic for niche communities, open for whoever you want, but also, wherein it necessary, entirely safe and private.

First and foremost, I am excited for the idea of this, I am excited for the OSS behind it all.  But even moreso than that, I am excited about what can happen with this.

Tags: Blogging, identi.ca, laporte, leo, micro, Twitter

"Has Video Killed the Blogging Star?"

TinyURL'd

http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-editors/2008/06/06/has-video-killed-the-blogging-star/

Okay, we’re joking…..sort of. But be it video-snacking, YouTube resumes, digital video activism or live-streaming to the web from your mobile phone, the world of Web 2.0 is being driven by the moving image.

I do not mean to debate against the article listed above, but I thought it an appropriate reference and example for the point I am hoping to make.  And for the record, I agree with you, the quoted title to this article is horrible, I promise you, its from the reference link.

I am in an interesting position with this media-revolution we are having today.  I grew up with, and in, the ‘down-fall’ of written word.  I transitioned from ‘chose your own adventure books’ as a wee toddler to Shakespeare in English.  Not only was I alive then, I believed myself somewhat aware.  I, or at least I tried to, view this objectively.  I went from when all my friends were reading until I was the last vestige of my literate hope.

Written word has hardly died as much as… it is being refined.  I get most of my news off of Digg, Newsvine, Reddit and the like.  Now you say to yourself, or to the monitor in front of you, “Andrew, you idiot, all of those are written content!”  That much is true, but gone are the days of pouring over a book and trying to find something worthy a citing.  Especially in the newspaper industry, our news is being specialized, easier to find and more customizable.

I do not know how much of this is just pure nostalgia, but I enjoy the feel of a book or a magazine.  Magazines especially, as the usually topical news is readily available on the Internet.  But no matter how hard someone tries, buying a good book will never grow old.

One thing book will always have over video is the accursed ‘rewind’ and ‘fast forward’ buttons.  They just do not work at well as a well licked thumb.  So especially in these cases, research and news and the like, written word is very much preferred.

It is not so much that video is taking over, although it is, I would not dare refer to it as a trend.  Videocasting is too difficult and not nearly as portable and customizable as an RSS feed.  The thing is, Blogging is not going away, the medium is far too powerful to give up.  Video, it seems, is just filling in the gaps that text did leave behind.

If anything, video is helping Blogging.  Sure, it is taking some readers, but it also gives another bar for a writer to reach and to capture the attention of their readers.

A picture was never deemed worth 1000 words until someone actually tried it.

In summation, Blogging will live even longer than written word.  And judging by the cult status J.K. Rowling’s novels have, written word has a few millenia left on its expiry date.

Tags: Article, Blogging, youtube