Yesterday Pownce closed its doors and Six Apart, who acquired Pownce’s technology and developers, launched its new platform Motion. Motion is a microblogging platform that pulls many of the best in class features that can be found in Pownce, Tumblr and FriendFeed. It is currently in beta but will be freely available to Movable Type Pro users in early 2009.
There are a number of features that have us really excited about this new platform. Motion sets itself apart early by promoting itself as an application that can be installed on any webserver. This is an important feature as it also clearly defines ownership of the content and as we have observed with Pownce users want to be able to save and repurpose their content even after the service goes offline.
Adding to the feature list, Motion is built around open standards. This will allow the platform to pull in other content, similar to FriendFeed, from any site that is supported by Six Apart’s Action Streams which they launched earlier in 2008.
It’s openness does not end there. Motion is also promoting a variety of ways to sign in such as OpenID, Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect. In doing so, this instantly opens the number of users who can participate in the site.
With like platforms such as Tumblr and FriendFeed still seaching for a business model, Motion has the makings to be a major competitor in the microblogging arena. Adding the ability to host on your own and supporting open standards are sure to increase use and hopefully drive the simplicity of microblogging to the same level as blogging.
You may want to also check out Yonkly. It's the first "create your own" microblog that integrates with Twitter. http://yonkly.com
Reply · Permalinkhttp://topixz.com
Better than 6apart, developed by a powncer, and opensource.
Reply · Permalink@Wolfman-K: We've actually done a few stories on Topixz. I'm part of the private beta right now and things are looking really nice so far.
Reply · PermalinkSo Six Apart dismantles a solid community then opens the same type of micro blogging service within a week of closing Pownce.
No thanks. I was left with a terrible taste from the last time the rug was pulled out from under me. I'll also be on Topixz.
Reply · Permalink@Mike L It is rather strange that Six Apart would pull the plug on an operation like Pownce and then just try to shuffle all of the users over to their own systems. It's easy to acquire employees and staffers that way, but it doesn't quite work the same for users. They generally have a much tighter bond with the community itself.
I'm actually curious as to why they acquired Pownce at all. If they just wanted some of their staff, they probably could have hired them away. At least when Google purchased Jaiku they kept the actual platform intact.
Reply · PermalinkTo the Mikes, Check out Diggnation ep 180 - A Couch in Maryland. In the show, the first story is about Pownce and Kevin gives some more of the background of the deal. Sounds as if Pownce was shopping for buyers and looking to get out for several weeks before the announcement.
It is sad because I don't think the Pownce crew ever saw what they created to be more than an interesting side project.
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