Seesmic, the TIN of Video Messaging
by Ewan Spence
Many years ago, back in the dark days when I studied Artificial Intelligence at Edinburgh University I was a heavy user of the Usenet reading application TIN. This of course was in the fun days when all access was through 80×24 VT100 terminals. And I remember that TIN was a great improvement over RN and NN, and the main advantage was it used threaded messaging.
And I think that’s where Seesmic, Loic Le Meur’s play to get into the instant message + stream of conscious + video space which could (could) prove profitable in the future. I’ve been on the service for some time, and using it in anger over the last week, and while it is incredibly rough around the edges (and everyone is screaming for threaded messages - making it more Jaiku than Twitter?) there is something going on here that needs exploring.
Seesmic is not the final answer. It’s simply the opening shot, like a ranging shell in a naval battle. If any of the other presence services add video, the bloated Flash app of Seesmic will have a tough battle early on it’s career. TIN caught my imagination, but it was a News client on Windows 3.11 that really pulled me into Usenet. So the question is, will Seesmic’s TIN become lead or gold?
