Don’t ignore the Twitter user contracts
On the Friday Gillmor Gang, we discussed a decentralized Twitter. It was both constructive and sometimes contentious.
Chris Saad discussed his idea (GetPingd) — an interesting approach that got short shrift on the call. Bob Lee had some idea on how to do more with Jabber.
A couple more things (some of which I articulated on the call).
Twitter is not micro-blogging. It can be used for micro-blogging, but it is a different animal completely. It isn’t instant-messaging either, though it is used for that a lot. As a result, if you are trying to improve it — or replace it — don’t try to force it into these other paradigms.
Why do I say this isn’t just micro-blogging or IM? Look at the user contracts:
- Blogging has a simple Subscribe/Unsubscribe contract. Twitter has block / track / direct messages (and soon filter).
- IM generally has a friend approval mechanism to receive IM’s. That is if you want updates from me through IM, I have to say it is OK. Twitter allows this “private updates” feature, but the default is open.
Don’t try to architect a better Twitter by ignoring these contracts — your service will fail.
Tags: GillmorGang, Micro-blogging, Microblogging, Saad, Twitter
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