Library clips

First I’ll say that most micro blogging services are within a network environment and are set up to not only publish but to also converse, and some even are profile aggregator streams or lifestreams.

There is also a blur on what micro blogging actually means…other terms used are status, and presence.
eg.
Plaxo Pulse and Facebook are more about status.
Twitter and Jaiku are more about presence.
Tumblr and Pownce are more about micro-blogging…but then Pownce doesn’t really look like a stand alone blog. Actually I can’t define Pownce…you are publishing, and the posts can be longer then Twitter, but they are usually not too long like Tumblr, you can also send files, and posts can be directed to different sets of people. I see Pownce more of a sharing service, rather than publishing, even though it still is publishing. Most of the time these days you don’t have to push too much sharing, as people can just tune into your flow.

Just to confuse both Plaxo Pulse and Facebook have messages/notes and links/posted items, which is basically micro-blogging, in addition to their status feature.
And just when you thought lifestreaming was a standalone type of service, we have Jaiku, Tumblr and Plaxo Pulse each with a profile aggregator stream feature.
Some of the services above like Plaxo Pulse and Tumblr allow you to reblog stuff into your stream.
Then we have lifestreaming services like Ziki and others that enable you to post inhouse content into your stream.

When you look at it Plaxo Pulse has lifestreaming, re-blogging, micro-posting, and status.

Maybe mobile web or SMS/MMS has a role to play in the definition.

I think the level of context (and content) goes like this:

Online indicator (availability)
Status
Presence
Micro-blogging
Blogging

First some more traditonal methods:

Email
- more personal or private correspondence
- the sender and receiver don’t need the same email client to correspond
- Gmail has great search features

I used Twitter to ask if anyone had an invite to a new service, the first question was, what’s your email address, and I’ll send you an invite.

In saying all this, I really don’t use email much, it’s becoming more my central notification spot
ie notifications for new friends, comments, etc…also see Fuser.

People can send you messages many other ways, but most of the time they have to use that same system, and they figure that you would check your email more frequently than the 10 social networks you’re in.

IM
- private chat (one or multiple people)
- not published (only Gmail archive)

Other options:
- Meebo rooms
- Tangler
- Chinswing

Blog
More editorial based, I don’t just publish a post in a split second, it’s more thorough.
Still converational based via comments, but in a distributed network.

Lifestream eg. Ziki
- Profile aggregator or lifestream
- social network (add and msg friends)
- friendstream
- publish ziki blog posts into your lifestream

People really don’t add me as friends here, or message me.
My RSS Reader is more my friendstream…most people splice their feeds with content from other services…also see Spokeo.
In saying this I’m going to check out FriendFeed, to see if that’s where the community is at.

I just used Ziki as an example of a lifestream service, check out the list here.

MyBlogLog
I don’t use this at all, no-one messages me.

MICRO BLOGGING

Pownce
I find this an awesome service, but it’s just not where the community is at for me.
But still I have found a use for it, how it differs is that you can have sets of friends and publish content to everyone, a set or an individual.

How I’m using Pownce mostly is a text, link and file sharing model between me and a friend, if one day others want to join our informal network, then they can easily be included. We trust each other and have a private place to share stuff. Plus we can use comments for discussion.

What I need is to get into my database a bit more, I can see all my posts sent to a set of people, but not individuals.
I can see all posts a person has sent by going to their profile (of course I will not be able to see non-public posts, unless I was a chosen recipient), but what about posts that were just sent to me, and could I do this from my profile.
I’d like the freedom to say “show me all my posts that Gerry is allowed to see, and show me all Gerry’s posts that I’m allowed to see, in the one archive”…or “show me all posts Gerry has just sent to me, and vice versa in the one stream.”

I think Pownce would really suit the enterprise, a knowledge worker can publish their thoughts, others can subscribe to receive content, they can leave comments for discussion (a comment by default becomes a post in your stream).
What I like mostly is that it’s great for trust models of informal networks, the fact you can share information with a closed set of people within the same system.
With Pownce you have a formal and informal network occuring within the same system.
All they need to do is add expert tags, and a content tag cloud.
I suppose they could also have formal groups.

Right now I can share with the world, a set of people, an individual, but there are no formal groups.

In another post I will look at formal groups (CoPs) and see how useful they still are in a world of social networks.

Check out more on Pownce from my post: A quest to discovering a private text and link sharing service

Tumblr
The link above also describes Tumblr…again this is micro blogging as well as the option to automate content by aggregating or re-syndicating feeds into your Tumblr stream. In other words you could use Tumblr as a lifestream and never actually directly publish in it.

Tumblr allows you to add friends, this allows you 2 streams, just my posts, or posts from me and all the people I follow.
You can also filter posts by content type: text, images, audio, video, etc…

I like the idea of reblogging posts into your stream, and if a post has been reblogged it will show the who has reblogged it and their post content.

There are various ways to post to Tumblr which helps
- web, bookmarklet, IM (Imified), jott, desktop widget, and email.

Since I use Twitter mostly as my presence posting, I thought I would have no use for Tumblr, as it’s similar…but is it, I don’t quite see the conversation aspect of Tumblr.

I actually think Tumblr is more what Twitter was initially about, but more of a blog feel, slowly I think Tumblr will become more conversational, only I still think it won’t be as chatty as Twitter, it will still be focused on blogging…you can now add a comments module to your Tumblr.

The way I use Tumblr is more non-tech focused stuff, it’s more by thoughts about life, whatever I see on the street, etc…me and my phone. It’s more my moblog (text, photo, video), more fleeting and spontaneous blogging about anything in general.

Twitter can be used like this, but it is not as blog like, I wouldn’t ask a question or chat on Tumblr like I do in Twitter. Twitter is on the pulse of what’s happening, it’s breaking, it just 140 characters compared to Tumblr’s 500…when I think of it my tweets are so disposable or temporary like chat, whereas my Tumbl’s are still spontaneous, but more thoughtful.

A description of the Tumblr features.

Here is a way to see followers/following via your tumblr homepage.

You can also get a list of the URL’s following and followers

But what about when I’m on another users Tumblr, how can I see who they follow. By clicking on people I follow and being able to inturn see who they follow is discovery via my social filter, what more than this do you want these days when you have to choose from a sea of a million sources.

Also we cannot see someone’s dashboard stream of tumbls with others (and RSS version), it also doesn’t have favourites.

Tumblr resources, and more…including the Ning Tumblr community, and Tumblr Universe (Google CSE), which allows you to search the Tumblsphere.

I also found a hack to reblog your own post into a Tumblr group.

Two things I want to see are posting by Gtalk and mostly posting by mobile web (so far they only have a read-only mobile version, here’s an example.)

Jaiku
- presence blogging with comments
- profile aggregator stream (like Tumblr)
- channels

So far Jaiku is the most like Twitter, it doesn’t have the blog feel like Tumblr, and it doesn’t have the selective trust based posting features like Pownce.

I find that I don’t use Jaiku, as it is not unique enough, so I use Twitter instead…who knows in the future, Jaiku may fill a unique need if it gets into status networking like “The Swarm.”

Facebook
- status (via web, email, SMS, IM, etc…)
- also post notes, links, photo’s etc…

This is very unlike the others, this is just one feature of a greater service, it’s more simple, there is no conversation, there is no real promotion of a stream, etc…

The reason I use it is because my messages are for a different audience, these are mostly people I actually know. My Facebook friends don’t use Twitter or any other presence services, so this is all I’ve got with them.

I’ve mentioned presence posting before, and no one is interested (they said that’s such a stupid idea), yet now they are doing it, and not even realising.

Twitter
- presence posts
- replies
- follow others stream

Need I say more.

I haven’t talked about groups:
Twitter has hashtags, Jaiku has channels, Tumblr has more formal groups, and Pownce doesn’t have groups.

Plaxo Pulse
Plaxo Pulse is a combination of a few things, it has profile aggregation or lifesteaming, and like the regular lifestreaming services eg. Ziki, Wink, Dandelife, Profilactic, it also allows you to post content, but with Plaxo posting content is just as big a feature as lifestreaming.

Lifestream
- aggregate your profiles to your stream
(when you add each feed you choose which set of people to share with eg. friends, family, business, nobody, public)

Connections
- when you add a contact, you choose which stream you want to see their content in eg. friends, family, business

Plaxo posting
- when you publish content (message, link, video, note, etc…) you choose which stream/s for this content to appear in eg. friends, family, business

So…
- When you add a connection, you add them to a stream
- When you add an outside feed, you add it to a stream
- When you post content, you add it to a stream

This is great as now you have different variations of your lifestream depending on the audience it’s intended for. For example you may only include your Tumblr feed into your Family stream, and you may post Plaxo content (photo’s links, etc…) for your family eyes only.

This means when you look at your family stream it will have content just intended for that set of people, and when your family members look at their family stream they will see your family oriented content.

BTW, when you look at your family stream, you will see their content as well as yours.

I can filter my family stream to just look at photo’s, or video’s, etc…

Filter
- Me (just my stream)
- Family
- Friends
- Business
- Starred
- Everyone

Status (presence posts)
- leave a comment (a combination of Jaiku and Facebook)

Connections (contacts)
- send message
- comments (public profile comment wall)

Each item in your stream has
- comments
- reshare
- favourite

Other features
- address book
- calendar
- tasks
- notes
- photo album
- groups (you can also post content to a group)

Issues
- how do I share Pulse content like a link or message with public (everyone)
- lacks individuals or create your own sets like Pownce
- everyone is the whole of Pulse…I also want to see a stream of all my contacts
- status is not a content type filter, I’d like to see status archive and a status archive for each of my connection sets (family, friends, etc…)
- when I visit a contact I can only see their stream, I can’t see what their contacts are sharing with everyone ie. a with others stream
- when I visit a contact I can’t filter by content type
- lacks following/followers (just connections)
- I can only notify my own items (I can’t reshare them)

I’m not using Plaxo Pulse, but as you can see it really blurs the lines, it’s basically Facebook with out the crap. It’s a social network (private/public messages, friends), it’s got status, you can post content, you can lifestream, you can have content in different contact streams.

If Plaxo Pulse came earlier in the scene it could of been my main tool.

Both Jaiku and Tumblr are similar, yet Plaxo Pulse also has a status feature, and a more robust friends feature…so I see it most similar to Facebook. If POwnce had a status feature then this would similar, although Pownce does not have lifestreaming…BLUR BLUR BLUR!!

NOTE: Lifestrea.ms allows you to create different profile streams. I’m guessing if someone requests a friendship you can choose which stream to give them…in the end this is similar to Plaxo Pulse (Lifestrea.ms is more complete as it has actual different profiles).

More

Soup.io
- is the same as Tumblr, it’s uncanny
- good thing is that for a given user you can see a stream of their friends stuff and even friends friends stuff, see here for more

Hictu
- similar to Jaiku (aggregation, posting, comments, friends)
- also includes audio and video posts
- started off as an IM status network

MySay
- audio presence

Yodio
- audio/visual mashup presence

Utterz
- post text, audio, photo, video
- audio/visual mashup presence
- post to other networks
- channels
- see more

NowThen
- photo presence
- also see Radar, Flukiest, mobypicture (also post to other networks), cellblock, pixpulse, Yappd

ShouldDoThis
- not really micro-blogging, but I’m addicted
- I wish I could post by email or it had a mobile web version

Seesmic
- video presence and conversations…see more.

Plazes
- a geographic (physical) presence network

Moodmill, lifemetric, iratemyday, emotionr

Blabto, Podobo, Yurbo

Recap

There is an overlap with the terms - presence, micro-blog, status

TWITTER
- presence
- replies as posts
- with others stream
- followers/following
- direct messages
- hashtags (channels)

http://twitter.com/johnt

FACEBOOK
- status (not the focus of the service)
- no replies on status
- private messages
- comment wall
- content publishing (notes, posted items, video, photo’s)…is this micro-blogging?
- news feed stream (similar to following or lifestream)

POWNCE
- micro-blog (also links, files, events)
- comments (replies)…also become posts
- with others stream
- followers/following (fans/friends)
- private messages in the same published content stream (permissions based)

http://www.pownce.com/johnt/public

JAIKU
- presence
- comments
- with others stream (overview)
- contacts (not followers/following)
- no private messages
- channels
- lifestream (feed aggregation)

http://johnt.jaiku.com

PLAXO PULSE
- status
- comments on status
- re-share (reblog)
- private messages
- comment wall
- content publishing (messages, links, video, photo’s)…is this micro-blogging?
- lifestream (feed aggregation)
- additional (tasks, notes, calendar, address book)

http://johntropea.myplaxo.com/

TUMBLR
- microblog (also images, video, audio, etc…)
- comments (via disqus)
- reblog
- with others stream (but only visible to owner)
- followers/following (but only visible to owner)
- no private messages
- groups (member based, this is different to Jaiku and Twitter)
- lifestream (feed aggregation)

http://johntropea.tumblr.com

I wish the social graph portability was here now so I could run my Twitter friends through Tumblr.

For now I’ll rely on a shoutout, If you’re on Tumblr drop a comment!

Conclusion

Micro-blogging services are not all the same, I use:
- Pownce for informal private groups
- Twitter for blabbing
- Facebook for close friends (real friends dare I say it)
- Tumblr for spontaneous blogging

I’m already traditional blogging, collecting bookmarks, podcasts, video’s, etc…yikes!!

Hellotxt is a lovely little nugget, it’s a multi-posting micro-blog service.
Quite often when I post on one of these four services, the context overlaps with the other
eg. I may post on Tumblr, and feel that I’d like that item also on Twitter, Facebook, and Pownce

Just like social networks, I think presence of some iteration is becoming a feature of most apps these days…whatever service comes on the scene, it will always benefit from adding friends and messaging, and seeing presence, these are all interactive, social, and immediacy type features.

As we see in Plaxo Pulse, they have status, but you can also post content…this really blurs the line on what we mean by status, presence and micro-posting…and also lifesteaming.

There are lots of these presence type services out there, but as you can see they are not all the same, I’m using 4 of the main 6 services for different reasons:

Facebook - status and micro-content for my old school friends
Twitter - presence and conversation for my tech friends
Pownce - micro-posts for trust based groups (I use it more for direct sharing, than publishing)
Tumblr - a simple micro-blog as opposed to a more serious traditional blog (I don’t make use of the lifestreaming feature or friends feature at the moment…re-blogging looks fun)

Plaxo Pulse would be an alternative for Facebook, but my network is already on Facebook.
It could also be an alternative to Pownce if it had one to one content sharing…let’s not forget it also has lifestreaming.

Jaiku is like Twitter without the conversation and community for me, but it does have lifestreaming…let’s not forget Twitterfeed.

Related
Mobile presence : Iotum-Talk Now and “The Swarm”