Zenji Web Development LLC

Open Published Short Messaging Protocol and Server System

From Zenji Open Projects

(AKA "Open Microblog Protocol" or "Distributed Twitter")

Contents

Summary

The following is a proposal for an open micro-blogging protocol called "Fire Signal" (working title).


Proposed name

Fire Signal.

Backstory on proposed name: In ancient times signal fires were used to communicate simple messages across large groups of people. It seems like a fitting metaphor. See: http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Communication.htm

System Components

  1. Fire Signal Protocol, Open Published Short Messaging Protocol.
  2. Fire Signal Server (FSS), Open Published Short Messaging Protocol Server.
  3. Fire Signal Extended Project Proposals, Aggregators and Extended Projects.

System Summary

Fire Signal is an open protocol designed to allow users to publish and send short public and private messages of 160 characters or less across distributed web-based networks of Fire Signal Servers, the second initiative of this project. The concept behind this is commonly known by the term "micro-blogging", popularized primarily by the web service Twitter and a growing number of competitors.

This proposed distributed protocol would extend the concepts behind micro-blogging to allow for communication between multiple micro-blog platforms, distributing the system for constant uptime and becoming globally accessible in an open manner.

The Fire Signal project would be considered a way to upgrade micro-blogging into a stable, universally accessible system, able to be utilized for mission-critical purposes such as commercial enterprise and civil service, as well as a fun way to communicate between average users.

The Fire Signal Protocol also extends the micro-blog concept into several new features as yet under utilized, such as multimedia messaging, extended command line controls and event geo location. 

This project is still in a "brainstorm" phase, meaning as yet it is concept and talk only.

Project History

The Fire Signal project was envisioned by Ron Whitman as an offshoot of the Twitter-based traffic reporting service Commuter Feed.

The Fire Signal wiki had been in development for a few months in the beginning of 2008 and was released publicly after Ron learned about Laconi.ca. It could be treated as a "manifesto" of sorts - Ron's vision for what an open micro-blogging protocol should focus on.

Problems With Modern Micro-Blogging

In the current day, published short messaging, or "micro-blogging" is still dependent on multiple proprietary platforms. These platforms, through using a series of web services based APIs can be "hacked" together with additional resources, but as yet do not have a way to communicate with each other and allow users of one service to follow the users of another service.

With the sudden growth of this field, dominant services have been plagued with infrastructure outages, and competing services have become marginalized.

During the rise in popularity of micro-blogging, dozens, if not hundreds, of specialized applications have been created using APIs bound to Twitter, Pownce and other platforms. By re-purposing this wealth of applications to interact with an open, common API, it will ensure they do not become irrelevant or necessitate the need to constantly add new platforms during market fluctuations between competitors.

Fire Signal is designed to solve these problems by distributing micro-blogging across multiple services and servers with a common standard API.

Network Distribution

Fire Signal Network Diagram

Uses of Fire Signal

The Fire Signal protocol is a distributed, published communication methodology for the announcement of short messages across groups of users on the internet who may or may not "follow" a user's messages. The following is a list of possible uses:

  • "Micro" blogging
  • Asynchronous Chat
  • SMS Relay
  • Alert messaging
  • Remote commands
  • Image / video / link distribution
  • Event Geolocation

One of the primary purposes of the distributed Fire Signal protocol is to provide for mission-critical usage. This system would become an valuable resource of status updates for civil service, such as emergency monitoring (see http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/10/california-fire.html), police reporting, traffic and transit alerts (http://www.commuterfeed.com), news services (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/earthquake_in_uk_news_broken_on_twitter.php) utility services, and commercial usage.

Fire Signal also proposes to extend micro-blogging into multimedia and geo-relevant notifications. With the increasing usage of GPS-equipped smart mobile devices, Fire Signal would create a way to publish and distribute important geo-tagged information in real time.

Resources

See Also

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