Online forums might lack the pizazz of a Web 2.0 technology, but the conversations folks hold in them consistently remain on topic. A Boulder, Colorado startup called eSwarm has applied the relevance of forums to microblogging in a grassroots business effort to unseat Twitter –starting at local universities.
The eSwarm Web site went live in August, and the company intends to release client applications for the Blackberry and iPhone by the end of October, said co-founder Matt Etlinger. Swarms look a lot like Twitter, but they’re really microblogs that are managed by the person who initiates them; they can be public or private.