Ello is being billed as the new alternative to Facebook, but if anything, it reminds me more of Tumblr. Currently, much of the action is in the idea of “Noise”–the equivalent of following someone on Tumblr or Twitter, without necessarily having any reciprocal relationship with them–and the variety of content there is just that. With no real-name identity association (which definitely has its benefits, ala Tumblr), it does have some potential as a space for emergent conversations and random discovery. I’ve used Tumblr for research, and I could potentially see Ello working similarly if it catches on.
Visit Ray's ello page http://ello.co/rayschroeder
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/ello-and-academic-social-networks/58211
