Edit: That may be a little harsh. I can offer some limited advice, but I can’t hold your hand through the whole process.

Get the Code

You can grab the latest stable version from laconi.ca. Extract it to the location you want the server to be.

Install Dependent Libraries

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5-cgi php5-cli php-pear php5-gd php5-mysql

You’ll also want to make sure you have Apache2, PHP, and MySQL installed, otherwise nothing will work. Once you have those, you’ll need to grab some PEAR libraries:

sudo pear channel-update pear.php.net
sudo pear install channel://pear.php.net/Validate-0.8.1
sudo pear install DB_DataObject
sudo pear install Mail
sudo pear install Net_SMTP

Then you’ll need to grab a whole bunch of external libraries. I’ve taken the liberty of creating a tarball containing those libraries, which you can grab here. Extract this file in the root of your Laconica instance.

Database Setup

You’ll need to create a database named laconica to use with this project. Then, you’re also going to need a user that has all access on that table – I used a user named laconica also. Once you’ve got those setup, run the laconica.sql file that’s in the db folder against the laconica database.

Configuration

You’ll need to add the following two lines in config.php right below the first line of code:

define('INSTALLDIR', dirname(__FILE__));
set_include_path(get_include_path() . PATH_SEPARATOR . INSTALLDIR . '/extlib');

There are a few other lines you’ll want to change in the config.php file also:

$config['site']['name'] = 'Micronica';
$config['site']['server'] = 'laconica.bockenstedt.net';
$config['site']['path'] = ''; # in my case blank because it's its own subdomain
$config['site']['theme'] = 'stoica'; # not the them we're using
$config['site']['email'] = 'mark@bockenstedt.net';
$config['site']['broughtby'] = 'microblink.com';
$config['site']['broughtbyurl'] = 'http://microblink.com/';
$config['db']['database'] = 'mysql://laconica:PASSWORD@localhost/laconica';
$config['db']['ini_laconica'] = $config['db']['schema_location'].'/stoica.ini';

The next step is to change the permissions on the avatar directory:

sudo chown -R www-data avatar
sudo chmod -R ug+rw avatar/

At this point, you should have a functioning laconica instance!

Forge on for the rest of the setup…

Configure .htaccess

If you don’t care about ugly URLs, this step is optional. There’s already an htaccess sample file included; I simply had to rename it to .htaccess and everything was fine. I can’t guarantee yours will be that simple, but it’s worth a shot. I’m really not that good with .htaccess, so you’re kind of on your own here.

If you do try to rewrite the URLs, be sure to tell config.php that you’re doing that with:

$config['site']['fancy'] = true;

Tweak

That should be a pretty inclusive set of directions for getting things going. As stated earlier, tweaks and modifications are up to you. You can check out my installation at laconica.bockenstedt.net to see how it turned out for me. As a reminder, the theme you’ll see there is NOT the Default or Stoica themes that come with the installer, but is a custom theme. Custom themes are actually pretty simple to make provided you know some CSS.

SMS, IM, and posting by e-mail still don’t work for me as I haven’t figured out how to get those systems up. Otherwise, it seems like everything else works (including OpenID).

Again, thanks to @lmorchard for the original directions. Be sure to check out his site decafbad.com.

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I’m still awaiting Sutton’s official reflection on the week, but I’ll forge ahead with my promised follower metrics. To recap follower numbers at the beginning of the experiment (as of August 12):

• Identi.ca – 240 subscribers
• Pownce – 41 fans
• Rejaw – 95 followers

Checking those numbers again today yields the following numbers:

• Identi.ca – 258 subscribers (+18)
• Pownce – 17 fans (-24)
• Rejaw – 131 followers (+36)

There was a definite gain in followers for both Rejaw and Identi.ca, but they were marginal gains. Over the last two months, Sutton has gained an average of 27 followers per day on Twitter (source). This leads me to the impression that, in terms of followers, the week was unsuccessful.

The feature that was most dearly missed was mobile capability. Of the five networks that Sutton used last week, only Twitter has mature mobile features. From what I can tell, none of the other networks support SMS, and only Plurk and Pownce even have a mobile-friendly site.

I have no doubt that Sutton’s goal wasn’t to gain followers, but to better educate himself on other networks and what they have to offer. It’s even got another user anxious to do the same thing. My initial reaction is to say that the experiment returned successful results. In my opinion, having a solid grasp on the competition’s offerings means the week was successful. I, like others, anxiously await Sutton’s official reaction.

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I like what Sutton is trying to do here. He has just under 6,000 followers on Twitter alone, so there’s a good chance that his idea is pretty well-known. There are numerous microblog sites out there competing for a chunk of the user base that Twitter holds. These other sites (Plurk, Identi.ca, Pownce, and Rejaw) could conceivably see an influx of registrations and usage due to Sutton’s nomadic use this week. Sutton calls himself a “Social Media/Technology Evangelist” — this is his chance to practice what he preaches.

The message I’m getting from this experiment is that the best way to learn what other sites have to offer is to use them for a day. This will tell you what you like and dislike about the current site in comparison to other sites. There are many other sites just like Twitter that are just as good, but lack the community Twitter has. Part of Twitter’s problems have been caused by its success, however, so there’s no telling if other sites will experience the same issues.

To gauge the success of this project, I’ll track the number of followers Sutton has. As of August 12, 11:30 PM CT, Sutton had these followings:

• Identi.ca – 240 subscribers
• Pownce – 41 fans
• Rejaw – 95 followers

On Monday, I’ll compare the numbers above to the then current numbers to see what kind of headway has been made in terms of followers. Since those who know about it will likely follow him as they participate, his follower numbers should be indicative of his success.

If you want to participate in the week-long project, there are no obligations or “gotchas” involved. Just jump on the social network of the day and use it as exclusively as possible. Wednesday’s network is Identi.ca, Thursday’s is Pownce, and Friday’s is Rejaw. If you want to follow me on any of those, I can be found under the handle chewbocka.

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