Twitter clients silos coming soon?

This piece is pure conjecture.

I read somewhere that Tweetdeck has a feature, or is planning a feature, that allows their users to continue to communicate with each other when Tweetdeck is down. I’d like to know if this is true, or if anyone else heard this.

One thing I know for sure is that Seesmic bought ping.fm, which allows their users to post to a variety of services, not just Twitter.

I have no idea what else is coming, but I bet there’s more like this. I don’t think it’s bad, I just think it’s a sign that the exclusivity of Twitter is becoming a problem for the client vendors, and they’re spreading out, but not in a compatible way.

Will users of Seesmic be able to communicate with Tweetdeck users if Twitter goes down? What about the equivalent feature that Seesmic probably has in the pipe? Will Tweetdeck users be able to connect in to their network? Or are we looking at silos?

And if I were one of these guys I’d be tempted to provide for enclosures, or relax the 140-char limit for in-network communication.

This is how lock-in creeps into a segments of a market that’s built on lock-in (Twitter’s). Once Twitter has theirs it makes sense for the clients to want their own. The lock-in is bad for users, but you can understand why the vendors want it.

Time to start thining about next steps.

Of the people, by the people, for the people

I remember where I was when I realized that Obama was going to be just another president. That the decentralization of government might have to wait for another incumbent. That the inclusion of the people in the government wasn’t going to be something Obama signed onto voluntarily. It was when I heard that the White House website was “looking for feedback.” That they would be the first Administration in along time that actually listened to the contituents.

What a bunch of hooey!

Didn’t these people learn the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address? It’s not their place to seek our feedback, as if we were customers and they were vendors. That’s not what this form of government is about.

Just like the newspaper industry is learning that We The People are its future, not by providing feedback but by doing the news ourselves. Just like the software industry learned it a couple of decades ago. Just like the music industry learned it, and the video industry is learning it now, government will eventually be turned inside out and we shall form a more perfect union and not perish from earth.

When you hear government say they’re listening, ask them to listen to this — get out of the way. This is our government thank you very much.

Twitter clients silos coming soon?

This piece is pure conjecture.

I read somewhere that Tweetdeck has a feature, or is planning a feature, that allows their users to continue to communicate with each other when Twitter is down. I’d like to know if this is true, or if anyone else heard this.

One thing I know for sure is that Seesmic bought ping.fm, which allows their users to post to a variety of services, not just Twitter.

I have no idea what else is coming, but I bet there’s more like this. I don’t think it’s bad, I just think it’s a sign that the exclusivity of Twitter is becoming a problem for the client vendors, and they’re spreading out, but not in a compatible way.

Will users of Seesmic be able to communicate with Tweetdeck users if Twitter goes down? What about the equivalent feature that Seesmic probably has in the pipe? Will Tweetdeck users be able to connect in to their network? Or are we looking at silos?

And if I were one of these guys I’d be tempted to provide for enclosures, or relax the 140-char limit for in-network communication.

This is how lock-in creeps into a segments of a market that’s built on lock-in (Twitter’s). Once Twitter has theirs it makes sense for the clients to want their own. The lock-in is bad for users, but you can understand why the vendors want it.

Time to start thining about next steps.