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After a busy couple of days, oneforty app store founder Laura Fitton is in the unique position as the unofficial spokesperson for a developer community turned upside down in the wake of the Tweetie acquisition and Promoted Tweets launch. As the company hosts its first Chirp developer conference, thousands of coders are questioning their role and ability to monetize on the microblogging platform. Always an optimist, Fitton and oneforty are intent on collecting and answering the many questions plaguing developers. Sponsor The Tweetie acquisition in particular has sparked wild speculation from the blogosphere. For the first time since Twitter chose Bit.ly as its official link shortener , developers are reminded of the sobering fact that building on a single ecosystem can prove shortsighted. When asked how third party application developers can mitigate the risk of being cannibalized, Fitton agrees that integrating applications into the broader real-time web (not just Twitter) is always a good idea. While she acknowledges her own product is marketed as a Twitter app store, a number of the featured services integrate with other platforms. We asked Fitton how her community's developers are responding. She answered, "Tensions always exist between platforms and the companies that build on them. Entrepreneurs have to realize that and be ready to pivot in the face of competitive forces they cannot master. But really, in what industry do startups NOT face competitive forces they cannot master?" She makes the point that Twitter web clients have been competing with the Twitter.com browser client interface for almost as long as the community has existed. Says Fitton, "It hasn't been within Twitter's core competency to utterly master the user experience, so the competition there might not be as one-sided as everyone thinks. The company has to realize that a diverse ecosystem is going to remain critically important to their growth. If a client monoculture forms and diverse use cases/engagement styles are not well served, user uptake and retention will eventually slow." That being said, if Twitter does choose to acquire more application services, Fitton's recently launched Twitter Toolkits suddenly become even more useful than their initial consumer benefit statement. Fitton's toolkits feature curated Twitter application lists from high profile tastemakers like Guy Kawasaki , Brian Solis and Steven Rubel . With web celebrities openly endorsing their favorite apps, Twitter and other potential investors get a glimpse of what lies beyond download and usage numbers. Investors see which applications have elite web celebrity advocates - these applications then more attractive for acquisition. Acquisition candidate or not, ReadWriteWeb's own Audrey Watters' wrote a fantastic article to help you assuage any fears you might have as a developer. As for Fitton, she's already met with a group of 27 top third party application developers and carried the group's concerns to Twitter platform lead Ryan Sarver. In the future she plans on expanding this group and formalizing the process in which oneforty carries developer needs to platform executives. If you're a developer and you've got Twitter-related questions or comments, you can reach Laura Fitton by tweeting @pistachio with a brief note and link to any relevant blog posts or material. Photo Credit: (cc) Kenneth Yeung - TheLetterTwo.com Discuss

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Inside Twitter's Developer Fears with OneForty's Laura Fitton

Back when I was in graduate school getting my masters in journalism and mass communication, I worked on various "lab projects" which were challenges faced by media organizations that they wanted to tackle but didn't have the means or the resources to do so. So basically, the students at my school were a think tank for the local media. One of the first issues we were tasked with investigating was finding a new way to allow comments for online news stories to be more efficient and less offensive. Sponsor The problem faced by most online news sites is that the anonymous nature of the Internet makes it very easy for vulgarity and off-putting comments to be posted, and for some sites, these types of comments pervade their site. Many of today's popular sites with comments have integrated systems to where readers can vote down bad comments while promoting good comments, which helps the bad stuff to be filtered out. Others have tried blocking fowl language with asterisks or by deleting the comment automatically, but this has only lead users to find unique ways of spelling their beloved curse words. Some startups, like Disqus , have made it much easier to manage comments, and identity tools like OpenID and Facebook Connect have helped to lower the amount of anonymous commenters on the web, but anonymity is a fundamental cornerstone of Internet culture. Or is it? In a recent New York Times article about how many news sites are starting to remove anonymous commenting, Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post said she thinks that anonymity is losing its once exalted position atop the foundation of the Web. "Anonymity is just the way things are done. It's an accepted part of the Internet, but there's no question that people hide behind anonymity to make vile or controversial comments," says Huffington. "I feel that this is almost like an education process. As the rules of the road are changing and the Internet is growing up, the trend is away from anonymity." Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures says there is plenty of room for innovation within comment boards. Wilson uses Disqus on his blog and has some suggestions for features they could include to make the commenting experience better, but he believes one of the ways to innovate in the space is to introduce game mechanics into commenting. "Game mechanics will reward the kind of behavior the community wants and will punish the kind of behavior the community does not want," writes Wilson on his blog. "The anonymous commenter who has valuable information but can't publish in their own name will be rewarded. The anonymous commenter who leaves a hostile name calling piece of crap will be punished. And the comment thread and community will be better off for it." Entrepreneurs that strive to create a truly innovative product usually first start with a problem that needs solving, and comment systems are certainly a problem that needs solving. Therefore by some transitive property, innovation in the commenting space seems to be an open door of opportunity for startups to walk through and offer a solution. Are there other companies like Disqus that may be looking to disrupt the traditional comment system, or do you have an idea for making the process more user friendly? Let us know your thoughts on the state of comments and how you would change them in our very own comments section below! Disclosure: The New York Times is a syndication partner of ReadWriteWeb. Discuss

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Comment Innovation: An Open Door of Startup Opportunity?

Before tonight there were probably 30 to 50 teams making a serious play to build the best mobile client for Twitter. Tonight one of those teams was annointed the official selection of Twitter itself and its leader at least is now a millionaire. People are saying that the acquisition of Tweetie by Twitter is bad news for the ecosystem of 3rd party developers that made Twitter so much more useful for millions of people. In truth though, those odds were pretty good for all of them. Tonight's news demonstrates again that independent developers can code their way into cash, equity and a job at one of the hottest startups on the web. That bodes well for those of us who love to use the software built by all of them, too. Sponsor Tweetie developer Loren Brichter is just 4 years out of college. He graduated from Tufts in 2006 and got a job doing embedded graphics and iPhone development for Apple through July, 2007. That month, the iPhone 3G was released and that year Time Magazine named it the invention of the year. After more than a year of development Tweetie was launched in November, 2008. Less than 18 months later Brichter and Twitter announced tonight that Tweetie has been acquired and will become "Twitter for iPhone." Between cash and equity, Brichter must be a millionaire on paper at least. Brichter's one employee is Ash Ponders, who is in Spain and isn't saying anything on Twitter tonight. These guys built a service that won the big contest. If there were (and this is generous) 50 viable mobile Twitter clients - do you really think any of them launched this kind of business expecting better odds than that? There are a number of other companies that could have become the official mobile app for Twitter but at this stage of the game Tweetie was an obvious choice. It loads fast, is relatively feature rich, is attractively designed and has proven popular with users. Tweetie offers an attractive and simple desktop Twitter client, but was most valued for its iPhone version. Its strongest competitors were Twitterific , Tweetdeck and Seesmic . Twitterific is beautiful and perhaps a viable ad-supported small business but is too complicated to be appreciated by all but power users. (It's great on the iPad though.) Seesmic is strong on the smaller Android platform and is extending beyond Twitter alone. Tweetdeck is the most powerful 3rd party Twitter app but it has higher aspirations, is exploring development of sophisticated Artificial Intelligence , is more complex than mainstream users need and is most likely to be bought by an enterprise, media or financial services company - not Twitter itself. Tweetie is the everyperson's Twitter app. Twitter is chronically confusing for mainstream users, something the company has been trying desperately to change. If you are looking for a simple, attractive Twitter app for casual use then Tweetie on the desktop works great. When you're on a mobile phone, that's really all you ever need. In his blog post tonight Loren Brichter mentioned "simplifying the Twitter experience." That's something Twitter needs and something he's very qualified to help do. There is still a place for other, more complex, Twitter apps. Media companies around the world (including this one) are finding Tweetdeck invaluable in carefully parsing the stream of Tweets for high-value nuggets. Seesmic is believed to be working closely with Microsoft in order to bring social media stream reading to all kinds of different platforms. But tonight one of the many Twitter apps hit it big. That's good news for app developers in general and for the users who would use their software. Go ahead and build a client for a major social network. Odds are it won't prove a viable business, but if you were risk averse then building a Twitter client startup is probably the last thing on earth you'd do anyway. The fairy tale came true for one of these companies. That's reason enough for many more developers to build many more innovative apps in the future. Discuss

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Why Twitter Buying Tweetie is Great News

The enterprise may now have what they have wanted for the iPhone. But now they have to decide if such a locked down device is control they want secede to Apple We expect that Apple's tight control over its hardware, software and content will not stop an enterprise from purchasing the device. But it may cause some to pause and consider a smartphone with the Android OS - built on an open-source model with many of the same enterprise features that will come with the iPhone OS 4. In our post last week, we spoke with Ken Westin , CEO of ActiveTrak , who said the iPhone OS lacked multi-processing, SSL VPN, an and relied too much on MobileMe, making it troublesome for IT administrators. ActiveTrak allows for devices to be tracked if lost or stolen. Sponsor It looks like Apple checked most of the items off Westin's list except for one caveat. Multitasking work on the iPhone 3GS, its latest device but not the iPhone 3G. That actually may help sell a lot more phones into the enterprise. IT will want the multitasking feature, primarily for security purposes. As Westin points out, it's the multitasking that makes it possible for the ActiveTrak service to run in the background. With multitasking, ActiveTrak would not have to do any social engineering as is required wit the current OS. Currently, ActiveTrak is disguised as a Safari icon on the iPhone. The application activates when the user accesses the Internet from the iPhone. If it is not accessed, the device can not be tracked. But the Android has had multitasking capability since its inception so in this respect, it is not revolutionary for the iPhone to get such a feature. As for control, could an enterprise lose access to iPhone apps? This is not likely but as we have seen with Flash, Apple will make uniform decisions about what content it allows. The Android offers an open marketplace that has none of the restrictions that Apple imposes. Here's what is included in the iPhone OS 4: Multitasking ReadWriteWeb's Mike Melanson says the purists may not consider it multitasking but for most uses, it is close enough. He writes that multitasking, "for the most part, is handled by a double click on the home button, which pulls up a screen showing icons of all the apps currently hanging out in the background. Some, like Skype or Pandora, will actually be running, while others will simply be in a frozen state." Is that enough for an app like ActiveTrak? He said that from what he has seen so far, yes, it will suffice. Bit it is not something that puts it ahead of the Android. SSL VPN SSL VPN is now supported in iPhone OS 4. Apps are expected from Juniper and Cisco that will support SSL VPN, which allows for better way to securely access the enterprise from a browser across any device. Microsoft Exchange Email on the iPhone is now up to speed with the rest of the market. The iPhone allows a user to set up multiple Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync accounts. It also works with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. Multiple email accounts may be pulled into one account or accounts may be viewed separately. Data Wiping and Mobile Admin Control IT administrators may now configure devices to update wirelessly. The device may be monitored to abide by corporate policies. It may be locked down if lost or the data may be wiped. Wireless App Configuration This would allow the control over what apps someone places on their device. According to Apple: "The iPhone OS 4 enables enterprises to securely host and wirelessly distribute in-house apps to employees over Wi-Fi and 3G. Apps can be updated without requiring users to connect to their computers. One thing we don't hear mentioned much is the lock down of the iPhone. Is it a major issue? It does mix into the whole scope of the app platform. So, we argue that it does. But, overall, we have to agree with the NextWeb. The difference between the iPhone and the Android in the enterprise might be best considered a draw: "Wireless delivery of applications, great data encryption, Exchange Server support. When you're in a business world, with today's technology, these things become expected. These are no longer seen as value-added features of any OS, mobile or otherwise. Now, in fairness, Android OS is not at the top of the Enterprise game. But neither is Apple. For years, RIM has set the standard. Even today, other companies have a lot of work to do in order to catch up. I have to call this an even draw." Discuss

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Is the iPhone Now as Enterprise Ready as the Android?

If you thought Google's Street View was ambitious, or even Google Earth , then the companies latest efforts to "fill in the 'blue' part of the planet" on Google Earth puts the rest to shame. That "blue part", after all, comprises more than 70% of the planet's surface. Google started mapping the ocean last year and today is announcing that the ocean layer "will become part of the default set of annotations seen by all Earth users". Sponsor Over the past year, the company has worked with more than 100 partners adding hundreds of placemarks to more than 20 ocean layers. Google has worked with National Geographic, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as well as the Mission Blue Foundation . The Mission Blue Foundation is working to create a series of protected marine areas called Hope Spots , all of which will be included in today's release. Google is also offering a " narrated tour " of eight of the proposed locations for "Hope Spots". While we support the efforts of Google Earth to increase awareness, we have to chuckle, ever so slightly, at one phrase in today's announcement: One of the greatest things about Earth is that it allows everyone to see and experience the fullness of their planet, from revisiting places they know well to venturing out to formerly unknown mountain peaks, desert vistas, and increasingly, the blue heart of life on Earth. We know, for some of you out there, for whatever valid reason, you might not be able to get out there and see the world, but for the rest of you, get off your duff and go climb a mountain in person. Go get you some woods, don't let Google do it for you "via satellite". Discuss

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Google Earth Fills In The Blue Parts