Bzzz.... bzzz...... bzzz...... That's not the sound of bees. It's the buzz surrounding new, open source Twitter competitor identi.ca.

"Identi.ca is a free software microblogging service, similar to Twitter, based on the Laconi.ca code base. I recently needed to update my status from Emacs, since its faster for me and easier. I’ve been using an an Emacs mode to update my Twitter account, but there was nothing to use for my Identi.ca account.

At the moment there is a lot of talk on the Internet about the micro-blogging site Twitter, but I see less love for its open source counterpart, Identi.ca.

Twitter popularized micro-blogging, indeed, but it isn't fair to say they started it. There are many micro-blogging services, like Identi.ca. I like Identi.ca's focus on software...

There is a significant spam problem on Identi.ca, and it looks like some fresh ideas are needed to crush it. Here are mine, and a few ideas that I like from other people. Identi.ca is the open microblogging site based on the StatusNet software. It’s a fantastic service, with features that leave Twitter in the dust. But spammers are not being caught and banned quickly.

We use HootSuite at the Los Angeles Daily News to manage a growing herd of social-networking accounts across Twitter and Facebook. But the one thing that HootSuite doesn't do is update Identi.ca, the free, open-source microblogging service powered by Status.Net that many FOSS advocates, including myself, use in addition to (or in some cases instead of) Twitter.

A twitter/identi.ca plugin for vim, pretty simple to use and you never have to leave the command line to use it.

"Identi.ca still doesn't have a proper share button. For a long time I've looked for a good Identi.ca share button. One like Twitter's, one that: displays a count of posts, and lets people share the page with the post automatically containing the page title and URL. I looked so long without finding anything that I wrote one myself.

Twidge is a command-line, full-functional Twitter and identi.ca client. It supports posting updates, retrieving information, and excellent integration with the Unix shell scripting environment via piping and well-formatted output.