[sf-lug] any opinions or thoughts on identi.ca?

[Kai Chang]

I think twitter's api is fantastic quite frankly, and their TOS
changes are commendable.  It's growing fast and has a large user base.
 Not that identi.ca, tumblers and others don't fill interesting niches
themselves.  But twitter's all about the massive networking effects
and open source alternatives just don't provide that sometimes.  I use
pidgin just because of gmail and aim, for instance.  All this
microblogging's gotta coalesce a little better for me to jump
platforms.

Kai, new here from Virginia

On 9/12/09, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> wrote:
> hi,
>
> On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 6:37 PM, Michael Shiloh <michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com
>> wrote:
>
>> i finally joined identi.ca, the OSS alternative to twitter. not that i'm
>> such a big twitter user anyway, but i figure i should put my tweets where
>> my
>> mouth is, as it were.
>>
>
> I haven't researched this issue much, but Identi.ca touts its service as
> being more Free (as in Free Speech) than Twitter.  They claim that it is
> easier to fork their service than Twitter.  I am on Identi.ca as einfeldt .
> I use Identi.ca because of their emphasis on Free (as in Free Speech).  I
> have not actually tried to use any of Identi.ca's features for data or
> software portability (since I am a relatively simple end user incapable of
> doing so), but I am supporting Identi.ca for the same reason that I try to
> use only Free Software when I can.
>
> For me, Twitter is a necessary evil, the same way that Gmail is a necessary
> evil.  I wouldn't use Google's products if there were Free alternatives that
> allow me to do things as easily as I can with Google.  Gmail's ability to
> search my vast inbox of 41k emails is simply astounding.  Likewise, Twitter
> is very popular and has good reach.  So I use those two services without
> pretending that they are much more than a necessary evil.  And Google does
> employ several key FOSS developers and supports lots of FOSS coding.  And
> Twitter, like Google and Facebook, etc., are commercially prominent examples
> of innovative stuff that you can do with GNU-Linux.  We really need to find
> more ways to make money with Free Software.  So even though Twitter's
> services employ non-Free software, and is less Free than Identi.ca, I use
> them both.  But I am on Identi.ca because I like the fact that they go
> farther toward supporting Free Software and Free Data.
>
> Here is what Identi.ca has to say about its emphasis on Free:
>
> ##################
>
> http://identi.ca/doc/faq
>
> How is Identi.ca different from Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Plurk, others?
>
> Identi.ca is an Open Network Service <http://opendefinition.org/ossd>. Our
> main goal is to provide a fair and transparent service that preserves users'
> autonomy. In particular, all the software used for Identi.ca is Free
> Software <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software>, and all the data is
> available under the Creative Commons Attribution
> 3.0<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/>license, making it
> Open Data.
>
> The software also implements the
> OpenMicroBlogging<http://openmicroblogging.org/>protocol, meaning that
> you can have friends on other microblogging services
> that can receive your notices.
>
> The goal here is *autonomy* -- you deserve the right to manage your own
> on-line presence. If you don't like how Identi.ca works, you can take your
> data and the source code and set up your own server (or move your account to
> another one).
> #####################
>


-- 
Kai Chang  |  kai.salmon.chang at gmail.com