Why’s everyone using Pownce?

I didn’t want to break my teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk blogging hiatus, but I’ve been wondering why, over the last 24 hours, the whole world and his dog seems to be adding me as a friend on Pownce. For those who don’t know, Pownce is a Twitter-like social networking tool that allows you to send files and was co-created by a founder of the immensely powerful and influential Digg.com.

On further investigation it would seem like Twitter’s been down for some people for the last day or so. The problem with social networking tools is that very often it depends on critical mass rather than the utility of the tool. Pownce has better features (grouping friends in sets, file-sharing) but on the other hand to unlock them all you have to ‘go Pro’. 🙁

A tool such as Pownce could create a really effective ‘walled garden’ to use in education. Whether it be within a single class or school, or opened up more widely, these micro social-networking tools have the flexibility to be used in so many ways. I’m thinking of using Twitter to help my Year 11s to remember to revise… 😉