Here is my response to Dave Winer's post on developing the Internet Twitter.

I agree with the premise – I think there should be an open alternative to Twitter.

It should be NEA – No one owns it, everybody can use, anybody can improve it (referring to two Doc Searls pieces on social media  and Internet infrastructure).

There are at least two systems that I know of that meet these criteria – Pump.io and GNU Social. However, I have never used these, and I don't know how much other people use these. I have looked at a number of other projects attempting to replicate Twitter, but I don't think many of those have achieved much traction. There are also some IndieWeb efforts underway, time will tell if they make an impact.

What makes Twitter a more appealing service than setting up your own thing? Well, easy to start (just sign up), generally people you know are using it, it's easy to find them if you don't know their Twitter handle...and by the way, it's free (like Gmail, Facebook, and every other Internet service that is provided at no direct cost, but where the user is the product).

I have been an early user of the 1999.io blogging tool created by Dave Winer (the software I am using to publish this post), and I can tell you that it can be difficult for people who have not set up something like this before to do so (I have helped several people myself). However, 1999.io is right in line with the NEA principles, which is great. Also, anyone who takes the time to create a new product and bring it to completion deserves our praise, if for no other reason that they took the time and did something, instead of just talking about doing something, that they dared greatly.

At the dawn of the Internet, Apache was not easy to setup, nor email servers, or FTP servers, yet people persevered, and the Internet grew. Since the rise of the silos, people have moved aware from taking responsibility for their Internet presence and given it to other organizations. There have been benefits, to be sure, but some losses as well.

I would like to be involved in the development of a open Twitter system. My bigger contribution might be in the documentation area (I feel like I have made a good effort for River4 and 1999.io), but I would like to think I can make a contribution on the technical side. I can't say I am going to start a Twitter effort on my own, but I am going to start writing about what I think it should look like, and see where that takes me.