Jackson Miller

I signed up for Twitter on March 7th, 2007. In the six months since then I have 1159 “tweets”. I have looked at other microblogging tools, but haven’t had a compelling reason to use them (aside from a handful of Facebook status updates). While I am a big fan of microblogging in general and Twitter’s distributed messaging platform in particular, I have one giant reservation that I really want to find a way around.

When I was a kid, my dad had a business card that had 3 or 4 different “electronic mail” addresses. There was the ARPANET address, the internet address, the DARPA net address. This was a necessity because not everyone had access to the same networks. Microblogging has re-created that problem. This is a problem that is bugging me because people either join Twitter or we are disconnected from a microblogging perspective. I don’t like that. Each day I think I like it a little less.

Much of the disconnected microblogging problem can be solved with the same solutions that solved disconnected email. A message delivery protocol like SMTP can easily be applied to microblogging. Addressing can easily be applied with DNS and something like MX records. The network of relationships needs a protocol that would allow it to be distributed. Maybe something like XFN or OpenID can be used to store distributed databases of relationships. There could be a RX record in DNS that said something to the effect of “here is the server(s) that handle relationship information for this domain”. Then whenever someone “subscribes” the notification can be sent the appropriate relationship manager.

I have been talking for a long time about the need for a service that ONLY provides social network management. Not a social network and photos, not a social network and bookmarks, not a social network an “walls” or “message boards”; just a social network. Now I am thinking that it may be more important that there is a protocol than there is a service. All we need is an API and a little willingness for people to play along. I would think this is something that Marc Canter would be all over since it seems to be the crux of what he wanted to achieve with People Aggregator.

Microblogging needs this relationship protocol. Many other services and products can benefit from it, but microblogging NEEDS it.

Microblogging is bigger than Twitter. Twitter has shown us a vital new communication method, the benefits of which are only just beginning to become apparent. Unfortunately, Twitter can not provide what the world needs. Emergency management services don’t need to rely on Twitter. Internal corporate communications can’t rely on Twitter. We need a way for microblogging to outgrow Twitter. I think that way is a set of specs and standards. I don’t think they are difficult specs, but they are necessary.