First, if you think Twitter / Google Buzz / Petstatus.com are silly and just fads, you can go ahead and navigate away from this page.

For those of you who believe that “microblogging” is a new form of communication between people, then listen up. If you have an account on twitter, why do I have to have an account on twitter as well to subscribe to your updates? What about facebook?

If you have a hotmail email account, I don’t have to have hotmail to email you, why should it be the same with microblogging?

What we need is a common protocol, so people on different networks can follow and join the conversation! What we need is a protocol… what we need is…

Yes, Status.net! Status.net is an application that allows you to microblog, and converse with people even if they are different networks. That’s right! Now you can follow your favorite pets on Petstatus.com even though you are on Identi.ca. People on Swisen.com can subscribe to people on WowTweet.net. Amazing!

And guess what, you can actually MOVE and DELETE your status updates. Yes you actually own them. You can move them to another server if you want. Does twitter allow that? Didn’t think so.

If you are using Dreamhost to host a website, installing Status.net is super easy! They have one-click install for status.net. If you have trouble working with their installer, I have some notes that might help.