This is the UK Web Focus blog, written by Brian Kelly, UKOLN. UKOLN is a national centre of expertise in digital information management, based at the University of Bath. UKOLN is funded by the JISC.
Pownce? It’s About The Community, Stupid!
Posted by Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) on 14 December 2008
I was an early adopter of the Pownce micro-blogging service, sending my first Pownce post on 22nd January 2008. As you can see from the accompanying image I was interested in how Pownce differed from Twitter. After discovering that Pownce provided richer functionality than Twitter I then realised that in order for Pownce to provide a useful tool for me I needed to build a community of Pownce users.
But that’s where Pownce failed. Despite the functionality it provided it never caught on, whereas Twitter went from strength to strength. And tomorrow (15th December 2008) Pownce will close. What, then, are the lessons to be learnt? I’d suggest there is a simple lesson which the development community should reflect on – the most important aspect of a social networking service is the community of users. And it doesn’t matter how great the development methodologies are, how interoperable the standards may be, how widely accessible the interface is - if you aren’t successful in attracting a sustainable user community the servicew will fail. Just as Pownce failed.
14 Dec 2008 « Blogging Libraries said
[...] Brian Kelly looked back on Pownce and its failure to engage a community of users. [...]
sscheper said
You may want to check out yonkly: http://yonkly.com
It’s the first “create your own microblog” that integrates with Twitter.
Mike L said
I don’t know which Pownce you were signing into, and most other users, but I found the most enriching, interactive community of users on the entire web at Pownce.
It’s about the company you keep, it’s not fair to judge a service based on the lack of quality friends that you had on Pownce.
Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) said
Hi Mike – I’m part of a vibrant and valuable community on Twitter. Pownce failed to appeal to that community and failed to attract sufficient numbers for the service to be sustainable, it would seem. All that remains is to see who posts the final comment to Pownce!