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Sick of Twitter going down all the time? Sick of the sight of this annoying Fail Whale error message? (Image by daysies – CC-by-nc-nd) Well, I’ve got more Fail Whale than you can poke a harpoon at today! 🙂 Irritating … Continue reading
(Image by camera obscura – CC-by-nc)
I’m a big believer in open source philosophies, free software and decentralised systems, so I want to do my bit to give a plug for Laconica – a microblogging system that offers an open source, distributed alternative to Twitter.
So, what is Laconica?
According to the article, Twitter for the enterprise:
Laconica is an open source microblogging platform—a network service software that allows participants to post short messages on a Web page, which then can be read by peers and other interested parties. The messages can also be sent out to instant messaging clients, to cell-phones as a short message service (SMS)-based dispatch, and to other conduits.
Laconica is different from Twitter for several reasons. One is that it is available as a stand-alone software platform available without cost under an open source license.
So anyone can setup a Laconica server. There is a growing list of Laconica servers here – http://laconi.ca/Main/ListOfServers. Currently the most popular service is identi.ca. My account there is http://identi.ca/seanfitz.
Twitter is often down due to scaling problems, and they have reduced the number of features to reduce the load. For example, they removed the useful “With Others” tab that allowed you to view someone else’s conversation with their friends. With anyone being able set up their own Laconica server many of these load-related problems should be avoided.
Laconica also can offer federated messaging: Two different installations of Laconica can be linked so that a message on one service can be relayed to users of the other service.
It’s this federated messaging that really excites me. It means I can follow someone on any Laconica service, not just the one I’m registered with. This is pretty cool. Laconica is a truly distributed microblogging service.
Laconica also supports OpenID, the single log-on identity service, which is another plus.
See a full list of current and upcoming features here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconica
Content on Laconica is Creative Commons licensed
This is the only thing about Laconica I don’t feel 100% comfortable about – when you sign up for identi.ca you agree to license your contributions under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license.
Don’t get me wrong, I support the idea of producing work under Creative Commons licenses, it’s just that I would rather have choice over which license I apply to my content, like I do at flickr.
Besides, even though my microblogging may not produce any great works of art, I prefer to put a by-nc-sa license on my content because I don’t want to see it being restricted for commercial use and potentially sold back to me.
Private microblogging networks
Being able to host your own Laconica server means that you can create your own private microblogging network. As the Twitter for the enterprise article points out, this could have some important uses in business:
Deploying Laconica within an enterprise can help employees from different parts of the organization share information, Prodromou said. The software can partition off different user groups for collaboration, or have users communicate with the world—or organization—at large. Organizations can also set up conduits to personnel at other organizations running their own microblogging services.
Laconica in an educational setting
Being able to set up your own server also means it may have some uses in an educational setting. As a general rule I support web services being on the open web, but there are some instances in educational settings where private services are appropriate, such as with younger students, or vulnerable students, or other areas where Duty of Care is an issue. I’m a realist, so I also accept that sometimes private networks can provide a stepping stone for institutions that are just too nervous to let their students use tools on the open web.
A Laconica network could be a great way to provide a peer learning support network. As SMS support is improved (it only works with some networks at the moment) a Laconica network could also potentially be used to broadcast information to students.
Supporting the distributed microbloggerverse
I hope more people jump on board with Laconica and identi.ca and help create a distributed microbloggerverse. As an open source project the more people who get involved the faster it will improve.
If nothing else, even if Laconica doesn’t replace Twitter, or become anywhere as big as Twitter, it should at least keep them their toes knowing that they have an open source competitor.
So I think it’s worth checking out at least. And besides, if this really is Lawrence Lessig on identi.ca (thanks gnuchris), then all the really cool people will be there. 🙂
By the way – if you use FriendFeed it’s now possible to follow identi.ca updates over there.
Posted in Blogging, Citizen Media, Education, Technology, Web 2.0
From time to time I’m going to post a bunch of links to news items that I find interesting, want to draw attention to and make some brief commentary on, but that don’t warrant a post of their own, and that I don’t necessarily want to post to del.icio.us for later reference.
Welcome to my inaugural “Quick Links.”
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Google is testing a Digg-like interface for search, where users can vote search results up or down and add comments. The human element is added to Google’s magical secret search algorithm.
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Google had been in negotiations to acquire Digg, but the deal fell through.
As I read about the negotiations I couldn’t help but think about that famous Epic 2015 video in which Google merges with Amazon to become Googlezon, takes over the online world and develops a “social recommendation engine.”
Oh well, at least Google have their own social search engine experiment from the previous item to fall back on.
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Popular social networking site MySpace said Tuesday it will join the open source authentication platform OpenID, further bolstering the idea of a unified system to carry online identities between Web sites. But for now, MySpace’s OpenID accounts cannot be used elsewhere.
So the good news is… one of the largest web services is supporting OpenID, joining Google, Yahoo!, AOL and other big players, but the bad news is…
However, the implementation of OpenID on MySpace is still incomplete.
The social networking site is what is called a “provider,” which means the site can create new OpenIDs. But to actually use that OpenID login created on MySpace on another OpenID-supported site, MySpace needs to become a “relying party.”
Apparently Yahoo! is only a provider too, at this stage.
I didn’t know that about OpenID… you learn something everyday. Hopefully MySpace and Yahoo! will come on board and become relying party and make OpenID really useful.
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Speaking at the OSCON Open Source Convention, Six Apart’s David Recordon recently announced the Open Web Foundation, a meta-standards organization dedicated to smoothing the way for large businesses to embrace open web standards like OAuth, OpenID and more.
While there is already the Data Portability Workgroup, which acts as an open standards evangelist, the new Open Web Foundation aims to do the behind-the-scenes dirty work. The goal is to ensure that the various standards, like OAuth and OpenID have consistency, a legal framework and communication between them.
Sounds like a great idea… I wonder if they will be covering open standards for the metaverse.
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I agree with IBM that 3D immersive environments are going to play a big role in work place communication.
IBM foresees the demise of e-mail, phones and desktops as unified communications makes it possible to replace them with laptops and other mobile devices.
Instant messaging will step up as the preferred means of written communication around which other communications modes – voice, video, conferencing – will revolve, he predicts.
Rhodin demonstrated a virtual conference using technology similar to Second Life that creates a conference space that becomes familiar and in which participants feel comfortable. In combination with other unified communications features, this can make for more productive conferences, he says.
Toward that end, IBM announced at VoiceCon that it is teaming with Forterra Systems to integrate Lotus Sametime with Forterra’s graphical collaboration software. The goal is to create a virtual environment in which groups can meet to run through simulations of physical events and draw on relevant experts as needed.
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THE ABC’s voracious and highly successful push into the digital domain has taken another mighty leap with the launch of ABC iView.
The free internet TV service, which went live last night and is available at abc.net.au/iview, is the first real attempt by an Australian network to deliver comprehensive content online.
So our very own Aunty (as the ABC is affectionately called here in Australia) is making as many of its TV shows available for online streaming as possible.
Surely this is the future of television.
Unlike the BBC’s iPlayer, the ABC’s iView does not consolidate the public broadcaster’s television content with its radio content; but like iPlayer, the in-built video player is geo-blocked, or unable to be accessed internationally.
Disappointing, but I guess they have their reasons.
ISP provider iiNet also announced last night it would include the ABC’s new iView service quota-free for all customers.
Woot! Guess who’s with iiNet?
I don’t see Bananas with Pyjamas up there yet. 🙂
Posted in Administrivia, News, Quick Links
A video of levelHead – a very cool augmented reality 3D spatial memory game from Julian Oliver using the same type of square marker pattern augmented reality system I’ve posted about before.
The game is to be released on the 30th of July, 2008 under the GPLv3 license and is all done with open source software, including Blender and the ARToolkit.
More info here: http://julianoliver.com/levelhead
via: selectparks – levelHead v1.0 first footage (speedrun/spoiler!)
Comments Off on levelHead – augmented reality 3D spatial memory game
Posted in Augmented Reality, Creativity, Games & Gaming, Virtual Worlds
Comments Off on links for 2008-07-24
Posted in Daily Links
I am an independent researcher, consultant, trainer and presenter with an interest in emerging technologies - particularly social media and virtual worlds - and their impact on society.
I'm interested in exploring how we can use these technologies to transform individual and collective consciousness so that we can better deal with the serious challenges facing humanity and help create a just and sustainable world.
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