Jason got his taxes done. Neil is considering shaving his head. Kashlove may be watching television, but I’m not sure considering her entire post consists of the word ‘television’.
I realize I’m probably late to the game here, but something called ‘Twitter‘ has been popping up on blogs and is apparently creating some kind of buzz in hipper parts of the world than I’m allowed to enter.
Twitter is kind of a mini-blog that allows you to post 140 character or less messages from your phone, from IM or from the web, if you didnt already know that. I guess there is some purpose here if you wanna let family or friends know what is going on and don’t want to call all everyone to let them know that you’ve finished your laundry, folded your laundry and are now heading to the Tin Roof for drinks with Melissa who is twittering at that exact moment wondering whenthehell are you ever going to show up.
Is there no thought or demi-thought left not worth communicating to someone? I realize some people I care about are twittering away, but for the life of me, what most of us think between the gems would basically bore the socks off the patron saint of patience, doncha think?
Maybe it’s just me. Oh, btw, if you are reading this in Tucson, Buzzjoy says, ‘Tuscon traffic stinks’. Thanks, B-joy.
Did I ever tell you that my cherry tree looked nice before the blossoms dropped, or that I’m wearing a pair of really really comfortable padded athletic socks….whoops that reminds me..LAUNDRY.
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Well, for what it’s worth, I was pretty much of the opinion it was useless, but it turned out my mom was REALLY glad I was using it on both these trips this week, especially the one to Chicago since I’d never been there before and had never met any of the folks I was meeting up with in person before, even though I’d “known” them online for years. So her peace of mind this week was worth it, for sure – and, well, it’s free, soooo…
Even though for the most part it will be used by most people for social stuff, I can definitely see some value in it for those in careers that require a lot of traveling, meeting, etc. I’d have cut off my left arm to have had an online tool like that in the 14 years I worked for the surgeons, if they would have used it. Being able to look at that and see where they are or what they were doing at any given moment would have made my life 110% easier when working for them, but I can see it being even more valuable in other fields.
(shrug)
I know Lynn uses it and I’ve sort of watched Rex Hammock’s.
I’m not a big text message person and I don’t blog during the day so I haven’t seen the value in it although people sing it’s praises.
I asked this question over Chez Coma not too long ago myself.
I’m trying to understand, but alas, I haven’t yet.
I’m still working on understanding it. As someone whose bread and butter is made by understanding the potential of web technologies and how people use them, it’s been pretty bewildering to see this trend take off in such a big way and still feel as if I have no good insights as to how it could be useful.
As I said in my own recent post on the subject, I was wholly unimpressed until I read about how well it was adopted during SXSW, and then my curiosity was piqued: so there really IS utility in this thing! And Lynnster’s example is perfect.
But beyond those cases, I’m still not feeling it.
But I haven’t given up yet either.
I should add that I do feel like it’s one of those ideas whose time hasn’t really come yet. In other words, it feels like it’s an immature piece of a larger convergence puzzle. I don’t know if I have a good feel yet for what the other pieces will need to be to make it really cool, but there are probably multiple ways it could go. Bluetooth and the ability to tell when someone using Twitter is close to you… there might be something there. GPS and Twitter could provide powerful functionality in tandem for communities of users who want to keep tabs on each other’s whereabouts (parents and children; coworkers; friends traveling together; etc).
Anyway, just thought I’d add that.
I’m with Kate O on this one. I believe it is a simple application looking for a purpose. Nope, it is not there yet… but the wheels are turning and I am betting that something cool will come of it all.
“Immature piece of a larger convergence puzzle”…Kate O nailed it.
Meanwhile, I am off to mow the yard *grin*
That Kate O’! She’s a seer and she is probably right that it will fit in, but meanwhile back at the Twitter farm, Jesse is doing her nails, while Elvis is dragging the lake..
TV brings us the amazing ‘Wire’ and ‘Sopranos’, but also dreck like According to Jim and Jerry Springer. Maybe, the Twitter users thusfar are the ‘According to Jims’, and the ‘Wire’ is yet to come.
People always manage to do two things when a new technology emerges: use it to build community and deliver porn. What looks like an idividuality component (eg. personal blog) becomes a tile in the blogging community..I believe we yearn for community like many folks yearn for more porn.
Twitter, to me, so far, and sadly, I read a LOT of Twitterings before I wrote this post, is giving folks the opportunity to publish their every thought, and like any viewer of ‘raw’ reality TV footage can tell ya…life often needs an editor.
Twitter can probably be a somewhat skewed cornerstone of the community, and i’m sure clever folks (like the ones mentioned in Kate O’s post on this same topic) will figure it out. Meanwhile, Bill is thinking about going to get some coffee and Fred just wants to be left alone.
I didn’t like twitter at all until I turned on SMS notifications. Now I see twitter as a really great messaging platform. It let’s people choose the tool(s) they want to use to communicate. I bet twitter eventually adds voice and email options.
Jaxn – could you ‘splain ‘sms’ notifications. I plead total ignorance.
On a totally different note, I think you are in a football fantasy league with my son, Josh aka scrounge…
WHOA! You are Josh’s dad?!?! That is pretty cool.
Twitter let’s you post from IM, Web, and SMS (text message). But, it also lets you receive updates from the people you are following via the channel of your choosing as well (IM, Web, SMS).
I prefer SMS. So when someone I am following posts and update it goes straight to my phone. Others get IMed, and some people just check the website to ‘follow’ people.
Why this is cool in my mind is that if you prefer to use IM because you are at a computer all day, you can send and receive via IM. But you will get me on my mobile. Add email, voice, and RSS to the available channels and you have a communications gateway that allows for asynchronous communication with an individual or group of individuals through the communication tools that each person choose to use.
I am not very good at checking my voicemail, but I respond to TXT messages quickly. I understand that others may feel more comfortable leaving voicemail. If Twitter is going where I think it will, you will be able to leave me a voicemail that will be delivered to me over SMS. I can reply with SMS and you will get a voicemail. (obviously there would by some text speech synthesizing there).
Sorry for the long comment. I am still thinking this through.
I think too, somewhere I was reading mentioned it as useful as kind of a mini-blog – sort of when you have something in mind that’s not really worth an entire post. I have my days when I have nothing to say and post about on the blog, and then there are others where I might think of 10 or 15 things I wanna say throughout the day…. but rather than posting to the blog every time, certainly some of those could just be mini-blogged via Twitter. (shrug)
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