Es Tea Double Eye

Since the start of Gatorpeeps we had a few requests (as soon as we tell people we’re actually not using Laconica) whether we’re going to support the Open Microblogging protocol. I know of the Open Microblogging protocol, but never took the time to explore it. I immediately started exploring it, but found there is very little being said about it or what it can do. Shockingly little.

So what is it? Best we paint pictures as that seems to be the only way I get to understand stuff lately :P

I’m a user over at Floss.pro, which is a Laconi.ca Microblogging platform for people with an interest in Open Source software. I’m all over the web, so at some point I get to Army.TWiT.tv which is another microblogging platform (Co-incidentally also Laconi.ca). There I notice someone’s updates I really would love to see more of.

The problem is that I’m not a army.twit.tv user and would have to subscribe once more to another platform. No problem at ALL! You do not have to become a army.twit.tv user in order to follow someone’s updates there. Since I’m a member of another microblogging platform that supports the OMB protocol, I can still follow this user. Enter the OMB protocol:

So I click on his/her username, which takes me to his/her profile page.

I then hit the “Subscribe” button as if I were a user on the army.twit.tv. This takes me to a remote subscription page where I need to enter my URL to my Floss.pro account.

I hit the Subscribe button and get taken to the Floss.pro site where I am asked to confirm whether or not I really want to do this.

I accept and get taken back to the army.twit.tv site where I can see I’m now snug and safely a subscriber of that user’s updates.

If I now visit my page on Floss.pro, all future updates that the army.twit.tv user makes will show in my timeline on Floss.pro! Nice, hey?

I get the idea that generally not many people uses it yet. Twitter for one does not support remote subscription. Some geeky fellows on other Laconi.ca platforms do use it, but the general non-technical user almost certainly does not know of it! Big part of the problem is of course that people are not really aware that it can actually be done! Why not? It is a fantastic idea! We at Gatorpeeps are sure as hell going to implement it although I suspect that very little people might end up using it soon. Notwithstanding, it may just fly and I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be left behind if and when this happens!