Dalton Caldwell’s SXSW panel title ended in a question mark, and he said that question mark was there for a reason: “Is there an Alternative to Ad-Supported Social Networking?” Caldwell is working with App.net to find out. Read more »
App.net is opening its doors for free to new users starting Monday who gain an invitation through current users. Some will say that adding a free tier invalidates founder Dalton Caldwell’s vision, but he argues that it’s just another step forward. Read more »
App.net plans to launch a file storage API on Monday, allowing developers to build apps that use photos or files in their products, which are hosted by the users connected to their App.net accounts. Users will start with 10 GB of space to host information. Read more »
The makers of Tweetbot, one of the most popular third-party Twitter clients, have debuted Netbot, an app built for Dalton Caldwell’s App.net platform. The addition of Netbot serves as validation that Caldwell’s model could take off in challenging the business model of ad-supported platforms like Twitter. Read more »
Most critics of Dalton Caldwell’s App.net project seem to see it as a replacement for Twitter, only with users paying for the service rather than advertisers. But what the service really wants to be is a central messaging bus and open ecosystem for the social web. Read more »
