OStatic

In a post yesterday, I made the point that proprietary software applications are benefitting greatly from building on top of open source components. This is a beneficial trend that is largely missed by those who see open source as threatening to collapse proprietary software pricing models. In the blogosphere today, there is much hubbub over rumors that Google is about to buy Twitter. Without a doubt, Twitter has become a social phenomenon (many celebrities use it, in addition to nearly everyone else), and the company has already been offered hundreds of millions of dollars for an acquisition before. But did you know that Twitter is based largely on open source components?

In the past ten months, I've become hopelessly addicted to micro-blogging. It's not solely because I like the sound of my own keyboard clacking -- it's a quick, easy way to stay connected and informed. Like countless others, I started with the ubiquitous Twitter service, but have recently found myself using Identi.ca, based on the open source platform Laconi.ca, more often.

The world of micro-blogging isn't confined to two or three services, of course. Remember Jaiku? Jaiku, after it was purchased by Google in 2007, fell relatively silent. Late last summer, the service was again offered to the general public through an unlimited number of invitations. In January, Google announced it was shutting down Jaiku (and a few other services) without much explanation.

ReadWriteWeb directs our attention to an announcement posted on Jaiku's Jaikido blog stating that Jaiku is now running on Google's App Engine, and that its code base, now known as JaikuEngine, has been open sourced under the Apache license 2.0.

What does this mean for Jaiku, open micro-blogging platforms, and Twitter?