140Char

If you’re wondering what #inaug09 means, it’s the hashtag for people tweeting about the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States.

So aside from keeping an eye on Twitter stability, I’m taking a break.

Strangely it was actually coping well until the moment before I started blogging when an ominous 4 minute lag appeared – if it survives at 4 minutes considering the huge amount of usage it’s experiencing I’ll be mightily impressed!

Just one last thought – the experience of being able to share in the event through Twitter and throughout the web is definitely affecting other UK tweeters, and other people around the world. It seems that the convergence of technology and Obama is connecting people in a new way – perhaps because previous large scale events tended to be around nation-specific sports (e.g. The Superbowl), or large scale tragedies as occurred in Mumbai.

This time it’s a positive event in the messages of everyone I’m witnessing. And that can only be a good thing.

I was suffering a bit of blog writers block on the train home from London today, and worrying that although there’s plenty Twitter related in my RSS feed, there wasn’t anything I could add to without a fair bit of research.

And then the train stopped.

Handily I was on Twitter, and mentioned it. Seconds later:

Which coincided with the announcement by someone actually on the train.

Then:

Turns out fellow social media person Simon Collister was on the train in front. Sadly his offer of a beer in the buffet car wasn’t enough for me to try and get the driver of my train to catch his!

It also reminded me of other occasions when Twitter has been useful in answering other train-related queries, such as when @davidcushman was wondering why trains were delayed, and I happened to see his tweet and find the answer within a minute or two, so he could make alternative plans.

Sure, the use of Twitter at times of global-reaching events and tragedies gets justified coverage, such as Mumbai, or U.S earthquakes. But it’s also worth noting the difference it can make it personal instances – and if you’re only dealing with Tweeters you know, there’s already an implied reliability.

Twitter (And Friendfeed, Jaiku and Pownce) application Twhirl has now added support for open-source microblog platform Identi.ca. And, as Cnet explains, it’ll have a feature that Twitter users have asked for – push updates which send updates direct to the client, meaning no need to keep refreshing so much, and theoretically less load on the Identi.ca server.

I’m intending to take a look at the new client, and start posting more to Identi.ca, as I have a sneaky suspicion it will be one of the two or three microblogging sites with enough longevity to reach the mainstream. And I’m not sure Plurk will make it. (I’m not the only one).

Each group will have a demographic, whether it’s different due to age, class, geography etc, just as the current social network sites separate out: Facebook, Myspace, Orkut, Hi5, Bebo. But I think there will be more crossover, as people look for a site to jump to if the Fail Whale hits Twitter, or the A-Team turn up at Plurk. And an open source platform with less server load seems like a good place to build a back-up Twittergeddon bunker in times of need. After all, social networks seem slow, and blogs almost glacial if you have a serious microblog addiction. And IM won’t let you interact with enough people at once.

Twitter has enough established users. Identi.ca could become the archetype for open-source reliability. But who else can sustain themselves and offer something interesting? Place your bets in the comments!

*Plurk A-team pic on Flickr by daysies.