Twitter Open Source Alternative released

Developers of Trillr, a project similar to Twitter, announced this week that its source code is released. The idea for Trillr was conceived in 2007 as a peer group experiment among team members who wanted to learn more about Python and Django, and was created as an enterprise tool with enhanced features like group discussion and a user directory.

Trillr project member Stefan Aust admits the code base is "kind of crappy" as it stands now, but that's to be expected since it was part of a learning process. He says that, looking back, he would have done some things differently but notes, "perfect source code does not create communities. Our source code can."

Trillr is a standalone Web app that uses JavaScript, but can also run without it. With some tweaking, it can be set up to run in about a half an hour, and is already capable of handling 100 users or more. Aust also says to be on the lookout for a similar contribution in the future -- a "more ambitious project called Trillr1" which has an API that's compatible with Twitter.

Trillr was released under the BSD license, and Aust says now that the project has ended " this is our gift to the world in general and our operations department in particular which gratefully volunteered to continue to operate CoreMedia's Trillr instance. You'll keep the flame, guys."