Russell is bang on, microblogging should be based on a queuing system and not whatever it is now. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, no one thought Twitter or microblogging would take off like this.

The lesson from Twitter is that microblogs aren’t Content Management Systems at all, but are instead Messaging systems, and have to be architected as such. SMTP or EDI are our models here, not publishing or blogs.

Here’s how a microblog system has to work to scale: All the messages created by users have to go into a Queue when they’re created, and an external process then has to go through one by one and figure out which messages go into which subscriber’s message list. As the system grows and more messages are created, the messages may arrive in your "inbox" slower, but they will still arrive. This type of system can be easily broken up into dedicated servers and multiple processes can handle different parts of the read/write process, and the individual user message lists can be more easily cached - as once a page is created that contains messages, it doesn’t change. Source: Let the microblogs bloom - RussellBeattie.com

As we’re seeing more interesting ways to aggregate our microblogging (like TweetDeck and ping.fm), I see that we’re accelerating towards microblogging as the fourth pillar of e-communication (email, IM, and blogging being the other three).

The only question is, will the microblogging systems get into a better architecture in time?

The day after Canada Day and we have a new, and potentially exciting, microblogging service to play around with.  Identi.ca might seem like “just another Twitter clone”, but I think they are really onto something here.

Corvida, Sarah Perez, and Marshall Kirkpatrick all have it right on target.  Sure, it’s early days and Identi.ca doesn’t have all the features that we’re used to, but they have one thing that Twitter, Pownce, and Jaiku all missed: the are offering the sever software as open source that can we can install ourselves.

Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, even FriendFeed, all rely on increasing their own capacity to survive.  This is different.  We can install the server ourselves and then, of course like POP, have accounts to connect to the larger cloud with.

The question will be not how fast will Identi.ca add Twitter, but how fast will Twitter add Laconica.

You can follow me here: http://identi.ca/trishussey

Ah Twitter.  The blogerati are raising their glasses to you in homage of your passing.  FriendFeed is standing in the corner being polite, warm, and charming.  At the bar, people are shaking their heads, talking about going to FriendFeed’s place after the wake…

Hold on a second here.  I’m not seeing a huge decline in Tweets, course it’s a little hard to tell since I can only pull 20 reqs/hr through Twhirl.

The discussion and debate about Twitter’s untimely (maybe ironic since they just got a whack o’ cash) demise seems to focus on the Replies tab being toast since Tuesday (yeah like Allen Stern muses, why not just have it click through to Summize even with a build in search query for your ID?), okay yeah.  Okay Twitter isn’t the most reliable of services at the moment.  However as Steve Hodson notes..

Surely there is something else to talk about other than whether or not the Twitter bird has taken a crap on your forehead. Source: WinExtra » What’s more irritating – a dead Twitter or whining users?

Yes there is something else to talk about.  We look at this as a chance to help Twitter and FriendFeed and all to follow to do some cool ass shit.

I like Twitter for its immediacy and brevity.  It’s just there and (when it worked) simply elegant.  I like FriendFeed as well, granted I haven’t been on it as much lately because I’ve been busy, but it’s different.

As I read the commentary about everyone moving to FriendFeed (odd no one is mentioning Jaiku or Pownce or Plurk), I’m just not buying into it.  Twitter has a great place in our communications world.  I believe that we’re at a point where we can see what is important for us:

• We like rapid communications to people without needing to write a post or send an email.
• We like commentary on what we send out there
• We like it to be fast, stable, and able to be used from a variety of devices in a variety of ways (SMS, IM, etc)
• We like to be able to send other information into the stream (e.g. RSS feeds)

I don’t see FriendFeed doing all of that right now.  Pownce and Jaiku do a lot of this, but haven’t been able to capitalize on the opportunity to increase their user base (or at least participation rate).

This is my idea (it’s just forming so forgive any gaps) … no one service can do it all.  It seems to be too, too much.

Twitter, you’re great at sending messages out, so maybe become like a POP server?  FriendFeed, great at aggregating, find other ways for us to get brief updates.  All the other tools … FriendFeed started the trend to pull things together, take this as a the universal inbox idea.

So, the time might be right to work together.  Find a way for it to become irrelevant that you prefer Twitter or Pownce or Jaiku (or whatever) just you send stuff out, people read it, they reply you get it—in the place where you sent it.

Right now I have Twitter open in Twhirl and in Firefox.  I have FriendFeed in Twhirl and Firefox.  And having discovered Summize this week that’s open too … now I don’t think FriendFeed has all the parts here, close, but not quite.

This might be the “what’s next” that I’ve been waiting for.  The 21st century version of the email revolution.

Let’s hope so.

Great news for Twitter, they’ve secured more funding:

Project: Runway
Twitter will become a sustainable business supported by a revenue model. However, our biggest opportunities will be worth pursuing only when we achieve our vision of Twitter as a global communication utility. To reach our goal, Twitter must be reliable and robust. Private funding gives us the runway we need to stay focused on the infrastructure that will help our business take flight. We will continue hiring systems engineers, operators, and architects, as well as consultants, scientists, and other professionals to help us realize our vision. Source: Twitter Blog: Welcoming Bijan and Jeff

From the people who have signed on there must be confidence in Twitter and the business model, however…

Would you fix Twitter now, please?

We’ve been at 20 requests/hour on API clients for about a week now.  XMPP is still off.  Guys, really, quit with the sunshine and address the real problem.  Twitter is working its way towards being marginalized. Sure we’re not leaving in droves, but FriendFeed is getting a lot of attention…

Yes, I’m waiting for the next big thing, but I also see microblogging as a part of that picture.  FriendFeed, well that could survive without Twitter.  We enjoy short asides and links.  We enjoy broad conversation.  We don’t need Twitter for that.

Well, Twitter, you gonna step up or what?

This week we’ve seen both the release of a new version of Skype—Skype 4.0 Beta 1 for Windows initial release - Skype Garage—and a preview version of Twhirl that includes Seesmic playback—Seesmic Blog: Play Seesmic videos in Twhirl client—while they haven’t been connected previously, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Looking at the new Skype, it draws and centralizes your attention to the task at hand, communication with others.  Twhirl is doing the same for microblogging.  We’ve seen this before and when it’s happened great things have always followed.

When?

First the web browser.  Remember gopher and newsreaders and the other required tools to view the “Internet” back in the 80s and 90s?  Remember when all of these started to converge in the browser?

That started Web 1.0.

The other example I have is Exchange and Outlook.  These happened at about the same time, but had a whole different set of results.  Before Outlook, we all had separate apps for email, calendar, contacts.  Sure some of them could be integrated (I used Now Up to Date for example), but they were still separate, then they came together.

I’d venture that this began the push of PDAs, not the birth, the push.  We saw that these things should be together be cause they were so centrally connected.

Now we’re seeing it again.  Skype is, I think, brings such focus and your attention to chat, video, and calls, that it will have to have influence and repercussions.

Twhirl, on the other hand, is much closer to that shift.  Twitter, FriendFeed, Seesmic … read, post, share all together in front of you.

The next phase I’d venture is something to do with RSS and other information flow.  Snakr has become indispensable for me to monitor the flow of news.

So if when we bring similar things together, we can then see the next jump—I’d say we’re going to be seeing some pretty exciting things soon.

What?

I have some ideas and I’m going work on them and write a follow up post (my gut tells me it will have to do with the nature of how we create and share content).

Earlier today I say Mark Evan’s ponder getting back into the Pownce habit (which ironically is down/sluggish right now):

I’d really like to use Pownce because it has a richer set of features, including things such as the ability to share files. And while Twitter become the dominant player, Pownce continues to quietly make it ways as the second-place player that tries harder. The biggest challenge facing Pownce is there’s a raging party happening in Twitter’s backyard, and no one wants to leave a rockin’ party for a party with fewer people - even if the Twitter party gets out of hand from time to time.—A Chance for Pownce to Pounce? | Mark Evans

Which got me to thinking about Twitter, FriendFeed, Pownce and all of the other services we are tapping into.  Using Twhirl I can post to Pownce as well as Twitter, then both can be pulled into FriendFeed (maybe, I think that might be overkill on FF).

FriendFeed, which I’ve been waxing and waning on, is getting interesting to me not as the alternative to Twitter or Pownce, but the glue that might stick it all together.

Chris Brogan posted on FriendFeed a bit of frustration with Twitter and followed with a quick blog post on Twitter bashing, both of which is saw in my FriendFeed stream in Twhirl.

But could or should FriendFeed replace Pownce or Twitter?

No, I like Twitter.  Not great for conversations because if you keep hitting refresh on your API-based client, you will quickly max out your request limits.  FriendFeed seems like a better place for conversations, while Twitter for bursts of thought.

However, it’s not 360 yet.  The replies to a tweet and replies/comments are getting pulled together in FriendFeed.  Disjointed, but it’s early isn’t it.

I think both Pownce and Twitter will become like email.  It won’t matter which you pick because tools like FriendFeed will become either services (like now) or applications (I know we’re getting there, but I’m thinking like Outlook scale) to aggregate the information you want.

Right now FriendFeed needs some filtering and aggregating options, but I see FriendFeed becoming a portal.

Twitter and Pownce, gateways … now if Twitter and Pownce would freakin’ stabilize!

Tim Walker and I were chatting on Twitter this morning about Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce.  It started with my question: “How many folks here also update Pownce and Jaiku? Both have fallen off my radar, eventhough both have more features.”

Sure I could update both Pownce and Jaiku through Twhirl, but why?  I don’t go there to check replies, conversations or threads.  Through the conversation of tweets and DMs, Tim and I agreed that this smelled like a great blog post.  He beat me to the punch:

Is that enough to explain its success? I don’t know — but I’d love to hear what you think. Source: May the best product win? — Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

So what is it?  For me it’s all about Newton.  No, not the PDA, Sir Isaac.  Inertia and momentum.  Twitter started gaining huge amounts of momentum last year at SXSWi and by summer it became the de facto backchannel for tech events and conferences.  Sure Pownce and Jaiku came out and offered interesting things.  Pownce has groups, events, file sharing.  Jaiku lets me (as I just noted on FriendFeed) pull in other streams into my Jaiku stream.  None of those things keep me there.  I flirted with both services for a while (especially when Twitter was more than a tad wonky), but eh, Twitter kept pulling me back.

Bottom line the momentum and inertia that Twitter has built up means that, essentially, my friends are there.  The people I want to chat with (in 140 characters or fewer), the news I want to get (and blog), the cool people I keep meeting (way to many to mention here–and I’d surely forget someone), and just the other “stuff” that goes on (I’m not too sure about this colour wars things, but hey).

Take MS Office vs WordPerfect.  It was momentum and early marketshare that made this a battle over before it finished (I started with IE vs Firefox too, but I think the tide might be turning there).  MS Office isn’t the greatest set of tools in the world, but we all are forced to save things in DOC, XLS, and PPT format, why?  Because that’s what everyone else uses.  Send an OpenOffice doc and you’ll get emails back that “I can’t open this…”.  It isn’t better, it’s momentum.

Twitter got the momentum (and mindshare) early and has kept it.  In spite of its failings, we stick with Twitter.  Can it lose the lead and be replaced?  Oh certainly.  Look at Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel.  Right now, though, Twitter just needs to stay stable and improve some key things and they will sail on.

Marshall Kirkpatrick and I were chatting tonight and he mentioned the new WP theme called “Prologue” that has some very Twitter-like features.  We were also both musing how we were sitting chatting at DEMO while other folks were blogging it.  Of course if you can’t be first–be smarter (I think Marshall might beat me in that department tonight).

From the WP.com blog, Matt let us know about this new theme and what it could be used for:

Some folks have suggested that using WordPress, Prologue, and RSS you could create a pretty effective distributed version of Twitter. This isn’t something we’re personally interested in, but we’ve made the theme available as open source under the GPL so if you want to hack around it yourself you’re welcome to. For WordPress.com users the theme is available in your “Presentation” section. From the WordPress.com blog

Matt is being too modest.  Maybe too cagey.  But really I think this brings something us that Twitter lacks–affinity groups.  Yes, I know Pownce has them, but man are they hard to manage.  Imagine this, you have a descent-sized company.  You don’t really want to use Twitter for everything, but man it’s useful for a lot of things isn’t it?  What if you had a WPMU-based blog for the company … okay maybe just WP.  But you have blogs with different groups … HR, IT, General, For Sale, etc.  You just leave your comment on each of these blogs … heck you wouldn’t have to even contribute to any or all of these blogs, just follow the RSS feeds.  Pretty darn powerful.

Allen Stern, I think, is on the right track with his post:

With Wordpress the dominant player in blogging, this could be a game changer. What makes it interesting? Check out the final comment by Matt in the announcement, “Some folks have suggested that using WordPress, Prologue, and RSS you could create a pretty effective distributed version of Twitter. This isn’t something we’re personally interested in, but we’ve made the theme available as open source under the GPL so if you want to hack around it yourself you’re welcome to. For WordPress.com users the theme is available in your “Presentation” section.” “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey goodbye” Says WordPress To Twitter | CenterNetworks

Now…I think I need to test this somewhere.

Other folks talking about this: Mathew Ingram, Mashable