Is anyone reading this using Twitter? I've known about it as a tweak on IM. Users have accounts and can set short status messages about what they're doing now. They can set these by IM, SMS or a web interface, so it could be "standing in line at the Apple store", "buying an iPhone", "drinking at OM", "writing my thesis" or just about anything short. Like IM, your buddies can subscribe and get these updates. Of course it's free.
Since they're short and you might have lots of buddies you might get a lot of these. People have said they've tried Twitter, gotten addicted but most that I've heard of have wondered if there was any use. The twitter web site has some recent posts from random people and of course in the Web 2.0 world someone has done a Google Maps mash-up, actually two.
I still subscribe to Wired, it's only $12 a year and there's usually one interesting article per issue. The July issue (sorry not online yet), has a short article that finally explains a use of Twitter that I understand.
I was at first resistent to IM but after using it for a while I realized it was more than just chat messages halfway between phone and email. Your buddy list provides "presence"; that is you can see who's online, and with their status messages something about what they are doing ("busy") or where they are ("in meeting", "in China"). Since my Adium buddy list is just photos of them, I "see" my friends when they're online. I keep up with them more often because I "see" them regularly and think to say hi.
Clive Thompson in Wired describes the Twitter messages as not doing much individually but in aggregate you get a sense of what people have been doing, and when you do talk with them you have conversation starters. "For example, when I meet Misha for lunch after not having seen her for a month, I already know the wireframe outline of her life: She was nervous about last week's big presentation, got stuck in a rare spring snowstorm, and became addicted to salt bagels. It's almost like ESP, which can be incredibly useful when app,ied to your work life. You know who's overloaded--better not bug Amanda today--and who's on a roll." If your in a distributed work environment it's yet more information you can use to keep connected.
I'm now kinda interested in trying it but I don't think any of my friends are using it. Are you? If so, let me know.
2 comments:
I found it pretty annoying... Groups of friends sometimes use it as a ghetto group chat, but if you only have ONE of the people in that group in your friends group, you only get their half of the conversation, which makes no sense...
I think it needs time to shake out before it's useful...
Hell no. That sounds like another one of those things that just ain't in might tight little budget of spare time on my hands. It's up there with making a MySpace page. I have no interest...
However on the flipside, since it's been a while since you've been in the corporate world I will add to what you say about IM. My company has offices around the country, and many of my direct coworkers are remote from me. Life would suck without IM. One of the BIGGEST uses (since I work in customer service) is when I need to get a coworker onto a Webex or conference call with me. It saves tremendous time and effort if I can IM my coworker to make sure he's there, and say, "calling the customer now". If I get the customer, I conference in the coworker. If not, I say, "left a VM" or some such thing, and I just saved five or ten minutes of both mine and my coworker's time.
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