Open Source Microblogging

Published on Monday, July 14 2008

Many folks have been looking for an “Open Source Twitter” for about as long as Twitter itself has been popular.

Here’s a shortlist of those projects I’m aware of – please do let me know in the comments if there are others I’ve missed.

Sweetter 2.0 – an “open source and fun microbloging service . . . being develop[ed] by SUGUS (group of GNU users from the University of Seville).” Go here for code. Based on TurboGears, a python-based web application framework. Affero GPL (AGPL)
Jisko – Affero GPL (AGPL) licensed framework for microblogging, PHP 5 and MySQL. I had to use Google Translation to try to read the wiki, as I no hablo espanol.
Yonkly – written in ASP.NET by Emad Ibrahim. Code hasn’t yet been fully released but you can get an early version here. (License is not yet specified though it is described as “open source.”)
Twoorl – a GPL (3) implementation of a microblogging service in Erlang using ErlyWeb. Started (and entirely written?) by Yariv Sadan
Prologue – not really a microblogging platform per se, but a WordPress Theme which could be used as a microblogging platform. (Note that the Prologue post itself kills Firefox 3 for me – caveat browser). Prologue is available under the GPL, as is WordPress itself.
Laconica, which is the software which powers Identi.ca. Also Affero GPL (AGPL). This is perhaps the most robust, and is based on the Open Micro Blogging protocol. It also embeds creative commons licensing on the content people publish, which I think is great but others may have issues with.

Am I missing other open source twitter approaches?

Has anyone created a Movable Type theme which does microblogging?

13 Comments. Leave a comment or send a Trackback.

#1 • Emad Ibrahim said on July 14 2008:

Thanks for the link to yonkly.com

The license will be GPL V2.

-Emad
#2 • Fajro said on July 15 2008:

Jisko has a great UI!

See this: http://www.deugarte.com/rmd (in spanish)

It’s not excactly a microblogging service, but is similar.
#3 • Dennis Howlett said on September 9 2008:

This is launching today at SAP TechEd 2008 in Las Vegas. The blog is here: http://blog.esme.us which talks about a range of issues we’re addressing either directly or indirectly. The code is being committed to open source later today.
#5 • F. Michael said on September 25 2008:

Check out http://www.ReVou.com, it has also been used on several large microblogging sites like gozub.com
#6 • John said on September 25 2008:

Thanks F. Michael for the link.

ReVou isn’t open source (proprietary/commercial license), although paid licensees do apparently get full source code access. It’s PHP 5 / MySQL 5.
#7 • frederic sidler said on September 28 2008:

mixin.com is not open source, but as I follow everything like you, I can add openmicroblogger.org to the list
#12 • BSC said on December 14 2008:

Thanks for share the list. And I found another list at : web – strategist . com (without space )