Interop of Twitter and Pownce
The conversation should not be about which is better - Twitter or Pownce and who will support who - but “how can we achieve interop BETWEEN Pownce and Twitter?”
And 100 other ‘clones’.
None of this functionality is rocket science. The challenge comes in establishing relationships ACROSS vendor’s offerings - which just happens to be the exact same challenge for connecting people between social networking systems.
Come on folks - focus on the RIGHT issues!
July 2nd, 2007 at 12:30 am
let a thousand flowers bloom, or something.
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:31 am
Marc you’re absolutely right.
Twitter has an excellent API, what about Pownce’s?
Ideally, it would support the exact same API, so that software written for Twitter would work with Pownce, and vice versa.
Mike — help us ask the question. It’s super important!
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:02 am
they’re competitors…I wouldn’t expect them to want to work together. Nor do I think it’s a good thing in this case. Some services live, some die. Once they are fully established, then it’s time to talk interop. Like the IM networks are slowly doing now.
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:31 am
I don’t think anyone actually wants to work together. And besides, what if someone did it better than someone else? So much for ’standards’.
I don’t know that I want to live in a world where Toyota fuel injectors can fit onto my Mercedes engine, ya know?
And API is great, good for Twitter, whoopee. Maybe release some new features, that’d be neat.
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:43 am
marc
that was exactly my thought. why do i have to join a new namespace just to try pownce? why can’t i use my twitter name. or my AIM name?
the whole social media space is dying for interops.
fred
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:59 am
Fred, exactly — that’s what an API on Pownce would do, bridge the namespaces.
Mike, cloning your competitor’s API is a strategy for making it easier for customers to switch.
Microsoft used to be the master of this approach called Embrace & Extend.
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:30 am
[...] Sundar: Twitter meets Facebook in Pownce? Michael Arrington (part 2): Kevin vs Ev Marc Canter: Interop of Twitter and Pownce (Good read, API is the most important thing to focus [...]
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:01 am
Human nature and the profit motive…..same old story….but as suggested bridging namespaces isn’t giving away the store
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:01 pm
[...] Kermit Snelson summarizes and deconstructs the discussion nicely here. (I would also point to Interop of Twitter and Pownce by Marc Canter and Network Effects Mean Walled Gardens Are Here to Stay by Dare [...]
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:26 am
[...] Marc’s Voice » Blog Archive » Interop of Twitter and Pownce (tags: twitter) [...]
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:05 pm
[...] Some people have already asked the same question about Pownce and API support. See Marc Canter’s post on the matter with some interesting comments from Dave, Mike A and Fred Wilson. Share [...]
July 5th, 2007 at 1:33 am
I’ve got RSS flying around between all these services via Twitterfeed and dummy Twitter accounts. And I’ve then got Twitter tweets ending up in a Skype chat. So I’m getting all my friends updates on all the status systems ending up in one place. But that’s only a 1/3 of the battle. I also need:-
- Update one service and have my account on the others update automatically. Tricky when so many of them are closed (see Facebook).
- There’s no way to see a list of all my friends on all the services. And like everyone else there’s a feeding frenzy of finding the same people to add to the friend’s list on this week’s hot new system.
If everyone has RSS out, then aggregating it all is easy. But those second two issues are hard. Not impossible, but hard.
July 8th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
I spoke with Blaine from Twitter about this a bit on Friday. We’re both really interested in interoperability, and we’re architecting the Pownce API with it in mind. I’m in charge of API development, so feel free to add me on Pownce (and Twitter) if you want to stay abreast of what I’m working on. You can contact me through either of those services if you have any specific requests or suggestions.
July 10th, 2007 at 3:45 am
[...] Look around you already and it’s easy to see all the - different approaches to open and interop (Twitter<->Pownce, IM and communication interop, profiles, app platform, widgets, universal widgets, subscribing to [...]