Update (Nov. 2012): Wow, that was so long ago. Since then, Laconica changed to StatusNet, and I use it over at https://denot.es. 
After speaking to everyone at the laconi.ca hackfest yesterday, and seeing the energy that they are putting forth to make it easy to install and easier to use, I realized that any anxieties I had about throwing my lot in with laconi.ca were gone.
One of the things we have developed at cog motive is a toolbox of open-source applications that are stable and require little overhead for installation and maintenance. Our foci have always been non-profits, artists and other creative people. We want people to have a full presence on the web without having to learn all the wacky configuration stuff for themselves.
WordPress has been both an example and a standard to which we hold other software projects. Automattic has put a lot of effort into fostering a community and creating a great publishing platform. I know this because I am a member of said community, and I use that platform to invite others into it.
Laconi.ca is WP’s little sibling (micro-blogging, get it?). I see a lot of potential, and fortunately everyone working on it does as well. At the hackfest they had a long list of projects that need work, but it was well categorized and seems likes it can be tackled.
Ken went got the basis for an RPM working, which in turn allows them to put laconi.ca on EC2 (and to eventually merge it into official repositories for Fedora et al.). Evan worked on the web-installer, looking to the simplicity of the WordPress installer as the goal.
For my part, I want to start touching base with communities and organizations that could use laconi.ca for their own purposes. I am going to promote laconi.ca, here and abroad, and I am planning on sharing some of my ideas on specific uses that I am going to build.
If you are interested in using laconi.ca right now, the big instance is over at identi.ca (@maiki is my crib over yonder [actually, I am at https://denot.es/maiki]). If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with me, I both want to answer the ones I can, and hear the ones I can’t.
I want to hear people’s stories.