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JaikuEngine Gets Open Sourced

Posted by Soulskill on from the free-and-clear dept.

volume4 writes "The switch has been flipped and Jaiku has been moved to App Engine. Google will no longer be developing Jaiku, so the code and the future of Jaiku is in the hands of the open source community. From the Jaiku blog: 'Today, we are open sourcing the Jaiku code base under the Apache License 2.0. The code is available as JaikuEngine on Google Code Project Hosting as of now. Anyone can set up and run their own JaikuEngine instance on Google App Engine.'" We discussed Google's purchase of Jaiku in 2007, and their subsequent decision to halt development a few months ago.

41 comments

  1. WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by bobetov · · Score: 5, Informative

    Let me just start this discussion off with a great big "Attaboy!" to our top-notch Slashdot editors.

    For those of you not intimately related with all of Google's many acquisitions, etc. Jaiku is a microblogging and social-networking site. JaikuEngine is the underlying tech that makes it work. Seems to be written in Python. Designed to run on Google Apps.

    There, was that so hard?

    --
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    1. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by wondershit · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Wasn't so hard looking up the Wikipedia article for Jaiku either...

    2. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 0, Redundant

      That was exactly what I was going to post (down to the "WTF is Jaiku"), except you told me barely more than the original summary.

      According to Wikipedia, "Jaiku is a social networking, micro-blogging and lifestreaming service comparable to Twitter."

      --
      Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
    3. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by jkajala · · Score: 5, Informative

      Jaiku was originally mobile-only microblogging, as far as I remember. The web interface came later. The original client was developed for Nokia Series 60 (C++). Not sure about the server side, might have been Python. Also, the Google Apps integration came later, after the acquisition. One of the unique selling points (from Google's point of view) was (disclaimer: I'm guessing) how Jaiku enhanced S60 default Contacts list to presence.

    4. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My first reaction is that it sounds like Microsoft's Hailstorm (aka .Net My Services, aka "your wallet on the Internet"). Microsoft was positioning it to be the killer app for the .Net platform, but instead it died under a, err, hailstorm of withering criticism about Big Brother and the potential for abuse.

      Google is starting to attract the type of fear and loathing once reserved for Microsoft in the '90s (and IBM in the '80s, AT&T in the '70s), so maybe they decided not to risk the PR hit they'd likely have taken by pushing "Jailstorm".

    5. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by hey! · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Jaiku is a social networking, micro-blogging and lifestreaming service comparable to Twitter."

      Making a statement like that, prior to 1995 or so, might have been grounds for commitment to a mental institution.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    6. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by EvilIdler · · Score: 1

      I get social networking, but what the fuck is microblogging? When is a blog a micro? Is there a minimum limit before somebody's blog is degraded in status, like Pluto?

    7. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by operator_error · · Score: 1

      Typically, only 140 characters of text is allowed. That's microblogging (like sending out SMSs, but over the internet dude/ette).

    8. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by Infernal+Device · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm not entirely convinced it shouldn't be now.

      --
      "My God...it's full of trolls!"
    9. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by fm6 · · Score: 1

      This is mainly the usual Slashdot editor laziness. But there's a certain mindset here that's pretty common online. It says that the world is divided between those who know WTF you're talking about and those that that you don't give a Foxtrot about. How many times have you gone to a web site that claims to be the authoritative source for information about the Regularized Blivitron Server, but doesn't have one word about what BVS is?

      Ironically enough, there is one editor with a degree in journalism, so he presumably knows how to lead into a story properly. But that editor is pudge, who has a terrible track record for flaming and trashing other users, which is probably why he no longer helps with submissions.

    10. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by dinther · · Score: 1

      Thanks, you that was exactly the part I wanted to know. Now I know, I no longer care :-)

    11. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by dsandler · · Score: 1
      The "micro" part nominally means that entries are typically capped to whatever will fit in an SMS (although it's unclear whether SMS usage is still common).

      The more interesting property relates to subscription. Like RSS, you start receiving updates from contacts you've explicitly selected. Spam-proof, and highly conducive to emergent conversations. (If you're a Facebook user, this is kind of like the News Feed.) Here's another way to look at it: logging into your microblog is like joining an enormous IRC channel spanning the entire world, only almost everyone is set to /IGNORE so you don't really see them. Over time you unignore friends and build a little chatworld of your ownâ"no two views of the global conversation are identical.

    12. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by nametaken · · Score: 1

      Good lord, I must be old.

      I've kind got social networking and micro-blogging figured out, but what the hell is lifestreaming?

    13. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by Pantero+Blanco · · Score: 1

      I've kind got social networking and micro-blogging figured out, but what the hell is lifestreaming?

      Go to Google, type in "define:lifestream" or search for it, and things get even more confusing.

      Did someone just make this term up and edit Wikipedia to reflect their intended definition?

    14. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by mwlewis · · Score: 1

      Isn't that the whole purpose of Wikipedia?

      --
      JOIN US FOR PONG!
    15. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, orginally, Jaiku was presence and location (the Nokia S60 client knew what profile was active (general, meeting or silent) and where you were by Cell tower location).
      The status update stuff and the web interface can a little afterwards.

      I always think back to what Joi Ito said about the two services "Jakiu is a bunch of Helsinki mobile jocks getting into the Web 2.0 of it all whereas Twitter is the Web 2.0 crowd "getting" co-presence" is still the most accurate thing.
      I think you can see the influence of IRC much more with Jaiku.

    16. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by Poltras · · Score: 1

      Yes, but if done enough times, it becomes statistically relevant.

      --
      Of Code And Men
    17. Re:WTF is Jaiku, you ask? by jo42 · · Score: 1

      what the hell is lifestreaming?

      6:33 AM: I woke up.
      6:35 AM: I peed.
      6:36 AM: I pooped.
      6:38 AM: I'm taking a shower.
      6:50 AM: I'm making coffee.
      6:51 AM: I'm frying bacon.
      6:52 AM: I'm making eggs.
      6:53 AM: I'm eating breakfast.
      7:01 AM: I'm getting dressed.
      7:15 AM: I'm going to work.

      and so on...

  2. Google using MS strategies? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Basically it boils down to the same thing that MS has done numerous of times; a company or technology is bought, the knowledge and expertise are used to ones own benefit and then you dump the overhead because it only costs you extra money. The only difference here is that Google does things a little more in the public, so instead of just dumping it they "open sourced" it, but really; what is the real difference other than that the public can get their hands on the code?

    1. Re:Google using MS strategies? by whoop · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, the "only" difference is people get to benefit from it. It is hugely preferable to Microsoft's buy-and-charge-outrageous-price or buy-and-discard-to-kill-competition models.

  3. Re:Slashdot users are fucking bastards by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 4, Funny

    Slashdot users are fucking bastards

    your are more likely to have your penis stung by bees rather than getting laid.

    Try to be more consistent, please

  4. free beer, free speech, free puppies by Presto+Vivace · · Score: 1

    is this just a way to through Jaiku into the open in the hopes that a community will adopt it like a free puppy?

  5. an example of Jaiku by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Clouds hide Mt. Fuji;

    But a crooked tree halfway

    Class java.io.LineNumberInputStream extends java.io.FilterInpuStream has been deprecated!

    1. Re:an example of Jaiku by theillien · · Score: 1

      AHAHAHAHA!!!!

      I have to actually post my laughing because I don't have mod points to give you.

    2. Re:an example of Jaiku by Ma8thew · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Obviously laughing hard enough not to notice the GP is Anonymous Coward.

    3. Re:an example of Jaiku by theillien · · Score: 1

      Point being?

    4. Re:an example of Jaiku by hawk · · Score: 4, Funny

      Jaiku Open Source
      The poets now unemployed
      What? Oh, never mind.

      \

    5. Re:an example of Jaiku by soliptic · · Score: 1

      Probably the best post I've seen on slashdot this year. Bravo! :D

  6. Or you can use plain old PHP/MySQL based Laconica. by Glytch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why continue development for an app that runs on a single platform when one can use an app that can run on any LAMP setup on the planet?

  7. Too late Jaiku by Requiem18th · · Score: 1

    There is already an OSS platform for this, its called laconica, there is a public deployment on http://identi.ca/

    --
    But... the future refused to change.
    1. Re:Too late Jaiku by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes, but Laconi.ca just implements the same sucky Twitter interface/concept, Jaiku has threaded conversations and channels natively.

      and hopefully they will figure out a way to do scaleable life streaming that does not kill the servers

  8. Re:Or you can use plain old PHP/MySQL based Laconi by jetxee · · Score: 1

    Right! This needs to be upvoted.

  9. Re:Or you can use plain old PHP/MySQL based Laconi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    because it is an alternative, just like not every Web site needs Apache.
    Also Jaiku had a number of features not yet implemented in laconi.ca.

    Also, there still is a loyal(ish) community around Jaiku, and at least Jyri Engstom has been mentioning interoperability things like OMB, which is more than i have heard of any of the other Microblogging platforms have talked about.

  10. Source isn't a verb by AP31R0N · · Score: 1

    and therefore can't be past tense.

    The headline should read: Jaiku's creators release it as open source.

    That version also fixes the passive voice.

    --
    Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
    1. Re:Source isn't a verb by SparkleMotion88 · · Score: 1

      I'd like to double-check that assertion. I just need to source a dictionary.

  11. Social Networking 4 Little Guy? by Hillyman · · Score: 1

    Does this mean that the general public will have access to the Jaiku Engine, enabling us to create our own little social networking sites if we so choose? I'm sorry if I am not as informed as most, but I'm working on it. Thank you to those who are.