Twitter - I don't get it!

[Reid Cornwell]

Like everyone else I have a twitter account. The vast majority of trafic is about how some person is suffering from the delay in an airport (being sarcastic). Frankly I don't care about such trivia. Would somebody tell me what is the allure of this service. I don't get it.

Reid

[Denise M. Carter]

I don't get it either - my brother 'twitters' about airport delays and hotels etc, and i have an 'unused' twitter account. If it's a tool I haven't yet found a job for it! Having said that I was at a conference a couple of weeks ago (Vitae researcher development conference 2009: realising the potential of researchers at Warwick, UK) that set up Twitter as the new 'back-channel' for the conference. One laptop per 10 people and questions from twitter at the plenary rather than from the floor. Failed - My colleague and I were 'invited' to stand up and walk round the table to look at the screen! Lots of internal twittering about 'the battery is about to go on table 32'! - but - nothing useful that I could see? hear ? read ?

Later at lunch - screens were showing the live feed - and guess what - hackers and porno messages kept cycling round - exactly the thing you need at an academic conference.

Oh - and I've never twittered but at least 8 people are following my twitters - what's all that about?

Denise

[Reid Cornwell]

Many of my Facebook friends share their Tweets (is that the right neologism) to their FB wall and as a consequence my home page fills with junk. I don't want to blow-off my friends and risk losing them. These days I need all the friends I can get. :-)
Do people actually think the world is interested in this trivia?

R

[Marla Coffey]

Reid, I've had to "hide" a couple of people on my facebook page, but this doesn't delete them completely. Just gets some over the overload out of the way.

You will still get their emails if they send any, and it won't take them out of your friend list--which is nice because you don't want them to feel like they've been drop-kicked out of your world (although this does make me wonder how many people have hidden me! :)

You can unhide them any time you want, or just go visit their page when you start jonesing for a tweet. You can also block important apps like Mafia Wars and Send your Friend a Bunny Hug, without blocking the people who use them.

And what would George Orwell say about Twitter? We don't need big brother to watch us anymore...we voluntarily report in every 30 seconds, lol!

Best,

Marla

[RZONZ / Joe Frost - Founder/ CEO]

From my perspective it's a great tool when combined with their player on my site. Using 140 characters is much like the elevator pitch everyone mulls over. How to get to the point as quickly as possible addressing only the key points.

Then, this allows potential users or investors to "get the drift" long before I speak with them. In fact, a few are ready for the entire pitch just having read the twitter player on my site.

I don't post trash. I definitely attempt to get to the point as quickly as possible. It's an engineer's dream...

[Andrew Dean Hyder]

Well I don't have a twitter account, but from what I read it's the simplicity in which it delivers the ubiquitous connection to your peers and its minimal graphic footprint that is the appeal. It's supposedly topped $1billion in its valuation and is not profitable yet. I believe that with such a small footprint its going to be difficult to build an advertising revenue model, (as Google has). How they turn it profitable is going to be very interesting. I actually like the concept, but it sort of reminds me of the dot com boom: "We are losing .50 cents per client per month - so.... we are going to make it up in volume." - Famous last words by NetRadio.

[Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran]

I'm slowing becoming a Twitter fan, after a while of feeling exactly as you do, Reid. But as I'm following different people - especially local news folks - I'm finding it to be an interesting addition to social networking. I have discovered links to sites that I might not have stumbled onto myself, thanks to librarians that I follow. I've heard local news from the reporters that I follow.

I would give it another try, Reid. You may find you like it. There are some fun things happening on Twitter - for instance, John Adams is now Tweeting about his sea journey to Russia in 1809. http://twitter.com/JQAdams_MHS

[Emily Inlow-Hood]

I think Mary Beth alludes to a good point. Reid, if the people you are following only use twitter to talk about airline delays, then you are not following the right people. I heard David Weinberger speak at a librarian's conference last year, and he made one of the best points about social networking I've heard. Paraphrasing: you need to make sure you have smart people in your network.

What I also like about Mary Beth's response is understanding the local nature of it. Especially if you have one of the twitter apps on your phone that incorporates your phone's GPS function, you can search "nearby" tweeters, and see what people are talking about in your immediate vicinity. It's functionality like that make twitter such a powerful tool for street protests.

[Reid Cornwell]

Well, I am truly an immigrant but even in sites where the content is fairly good, I am still everwhelmed with trivia. Even in the days when I made notes with chisel and stone trivia wasted time. :-)

Do you think there is some advantage to having a closed, single purpose group to exchange tweets.

[Marla Coffey]

OK, Dr. C.

I found the answer. Or at least part of it. Check out these statistics on blogging from Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2009.

Looks like a huge percentage of the bloggers surveyed use Twitter to promote their own blogs and businesses. Shameless self-promotion is alive and well. :)

Marla

[Michael j. Trout]

If you #e3o you will get a up to date timeline of what I have been doing and what been going on with eSingularity Initiative. I use twitter to let folks know that I am doing related to EDUIT and I post all data info to #e3o.

For me the goal isnt as important as the journey. When I founded the Southern Shakespeare Festival as an undergrad. People would come to me and say how did you do it! What I regret is that Twitter wasnt there for it... When I eventually bring about the eSingularity platform that helps to flatten global education and folks come to me again and say how did you do it? Ill say go to #e3o on twitter and you can trace back my activity and actions, persistance and contacts that help bring it about.

Michael

[Marla Coffey]

Michael,

So you use it as a history--you can shorthand the whole timeline of eSingularity by simply sending people to Twitter. Cool!

By the way, I'm very interested in how social networking and internet technologies are affecting the arts and literature. I taught English and Language Arts back in the olden days when I had to ride my dinosaur to school and we were still trying to stop kids from bringing cell phones to school, so I'm wishing that I was back in the classroom long enough to do a revised Macbeth, "brought to you by Twitter."

Would you be interested in starting a new discussion on how SNS is impacting literature, drama, and other artistic endeavors? That would be a fun topic to discover. :)

Best regards,

Marla

[Mark Eagle]

What is the allure:
1. Its new and different
2. It is IM with 1 to many instead of 1:1
3. Some people love to share their opinion
4. Some people have too much time on their hands and love to share their life
5. It can be a great communication tool if used properly I.e. it can replace the old phone tree.
6. It can be a good way to be an influencer on topics or get information on topics quickly
7. It can be a good way for a company to get information to the public
8. Some people like to count their numbers :)
Just like any other technology, my feeling is important to understand it, and then use it for appropriate purposes. (important is in the eye of the beholder)
I do believe twitter is very powerful and will eventually have many practical uses.
While I have a enormous LinkedIn account (please feel free to invite me), I have a small Facebook usership and as of yet don't follow anyone on Twitter (although there is merit to that).

i do get amused at prominent business people sharing what they ate for lunch or the last song they heard on the radio. If you have free time, I can use interns in my fun sports start up business.