“But I thought Twitter was free?” It is, till they decide it’s not. We’re talking “free bird” here, not just “free beer“.
Why do I use WordPress? Because it’s free and open source. I can archive my entries locally. I don’t have to worry about the proprietary service (aka Livejournal) shutting down, and denying me access to my entries. I can fully customize the look and function of my blog. I can… well… I can do anything. If I don’t have the time to setup my own WordPress server, I can go to WordPress.com and get a free account. Then, when I do eventually get the time to setup my own server, I can archive ALL my blog entries and upload them to my own server.
This type of thinking applies to just about everything I do. If I can find an open source alternative, I’ll use it… or at least give it a try. My latest discovery was Identi!
Identi, an alternative to Twitter. Laconi (on which Identi is based) is open source & more scalable than Twitter. What’s that mean? You can download the software and set up your own server. Also, Laconi servers can talk to other Laconi servers. I mean, that’s kinda the whole idea behind the web, isn’t it?
Till another better, more free alternative to Twitter pops up, you’ll be hearing me talk a lot about Identi, so get used to it.
Don’t feel like downloading Laconi and setting it up? Then just go to Identi.ca and and open a free account. Don’t want to leave your Twitter followers high and dry? Well, you can have your Identi.ca account update your Twitter account, automatically… while you migrate.
Sorry about that… I just get pretty excited when people share through open source.
WOO!!
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