The latest version (0.8.6) of Twhirl, the popular Adobe AIR based microblogging application, adds support for generic Laconica installations. While that’s probably something of a “the what now?” moment for most of us, laconi.ca could be very big. Basically, it is an open source microblogging server software solution, currently out in 0.5 if I’m not mistaken. With it, we could possibly see lots and lots of Twitter lookalikes, probably more niched though.
Twhirl is just the latest in several applications and services who has added Laconica support, but probably on of the biggest. Among the supporters are web apps HelloTxt and Ping.fm, Mac app Twitterific, as well as a bunch of scripts that developers can incorporate in their applications. An up to date list is available in the Laconica trac.
I’m following Laconica with interest myself, especially since Twitter submitted API stuff to it, giving it the credence needed to be taken seriously, perhaps. It’ll be interesting to see how this server app evolves, since it might be something that’ll stand head on with Google’s upcoming microblogging business solutions powered by Jaiku.
