What I learned Friday night on Twitter
The more I use Twitter, the more interesting I think it is. It does take a little bit of thinking and planning to use it in an optimal way, which is different for everyone. I think if you’re the kind of person who is online a lot and enjoys consuming large quantities of information throughout the day (guilty!) it’s well worth it.
Scanning the updates from the 102 people I now follow (a mix of those people I know, people I admire or find compelling in technology or the online world, and a grab bag of folk I’ve met along the way), I was struck by the different kinds of information, coverage, links, and news I was provided with overnight and into my Saturday morning coffee.
It’s a unique experience that no other platform or service can provide. Twitter is very simple: you send out short messages, and people who sign up as a “follower” receive them. So everyone has people who follow them, and people that they follow. And that’s it. The compelling and complex and intriguing and addictive part comes in with the ways in which this simple system is utilized.
Here’s my take on Friday night, Twitter-style.
Live Coverage
Fire in Tony Hung’s condo! Tony had the (real time) presence to cover the fire that lit up his building in Toronto. Quite apt and to the point he kicks off with: “There is a FIRE in my condo!!!” Then adds, “3am and the whole building has exited on the street.” After a series of updates, Tony reflects. “Firetrucks are heading out now. What an interesting experience (a real fire) … lots of things I’d do differently next time.” And “Grab some external hard drives, get some gloves, make sure everyone has extra clothing … we already had a box full of critical things.”
Twitter provides an ability to send out swift updates on breaking news. Twitter and new services like Qik, an early play on live video streaming from mobile phones, are becoming tools in covering breaking and spontaneous stories.
Collective Events
Lots of chatter about the premiere of the new season of Battlestar Galactica. And pretty cool too that people began to poll each other about the episode (lived up to expectations? Etc.) as soon as it finished airing. Luckily I saw no cries for the need for “spoiler alerts” as no plot details were given away. And Dave Winer tied Twitter into Battlestar, saying: “Wish they had a bit in Twitter prefs that said whether you were caught up on BSG or not.”
And speaking of polls, Greeter Dan polls the Twitter crowd on Burning Man: “Should I go to Burning Man this year? I have tickets. I’ve been 10 years in a row. Is this year to take a break and so something else?”
News and Events Overseas
The Downing Street Twitter profile is great, keeping us informed of the goings on in the Prime Minister’s office and news of the United Kingdom. On Friday night (Saturday day UK time) we learned that: “The Prime Minister had a good discussion with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet Jeria earlier on global economics and cooperation.” And later: “Gordon Brown urges restraint “all round” on the issue of Tibet. The PM confirms his attendance at the Olympics this summer.”
Live Event Coverage
We were (slightly) privy to the partying of the twitterati in San Francisco. Mike Arrington of TechCrunch fame: “dinner with @gaberivera @1938media @nickgonzalez at indian place on calif. ave. interesting gossip.” The @ symbol is a convention on Twitter that creates links to other Twitter profiles.
Arrington goes on to note such things as: “Interesting quote I just heard ‘Twitter separates the men from the boys.’ rather quickly, I’ll add. just something@1938media said about twitter fights, and how some people tend to crush others.”
There were other general calls for Twitter get togethers: Dave Morin: “Come out in North Beach! Headed to Apt24 with @jsmarr @brit @aaronsittig @jessybigeral @chriscox @slee and @naomi.”
Technology and Webby Discussions
One of my favorite reasons for checking into Twitter is because of the great access to webby conversations and links that you won’t find anywhere else. Here are some examples from Friday night:
Louis Gray: “Thinking out loud: If your RSS reader started missing stories from some of your feeds, how would you ever know? Is it doing that now?”
Phillip Winn: “Discovered a problem with an ad late Friday night: do I let it run through until Monday, or hope someone is working tomorrow and can fix it?”
Robert Scoble: “Whoa, Wordpress.com’s administration tools totally changed look. Yowza.”
Michael Parekh uncovered an amazing chart showing Friendfeed’s growth: ” This chart I did on Compete.com shows Twitter vs. Pownce vs. Friendfeed. Friendfeed just took over Pownce: http://tinyurl.com/6fbsqa.”
Human Moments
Finally, you just get some really nice and immediate human moments every now and then. bpm140, AKA Eric Marcoullier: “Parker is on the verge of crawling. Celebrating these last few moments of relative immobility by… cleaning the kitchen.”
Recent Entries
- The terrific upshot on Dr. Horrible
- The scramble to catch up to Twitter (and its fail whale)
- The sky isn’t falling
- Death or dying and the network model
- Should all RSS subscribers “count”?
- RSS in the UK is OK (but could be more A-OK)
- Online Media Cultist hits the 300 RSS subscriber mark
- Yahoo finally agrees to sell to Microsoft?
- Want to get back into something? Grab an RSS feed
- Rock Band 2 to feature new releases from Bob Dylan, Guns n’ Roses
April 6th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
And which of those did you consider news, not in the AP or NYT sense (although both of them are represented on Twitter), but in information you were pleased to learn (good or bad).
I suspect since they struck you enough to include in your blog post, the answer is all of them were “news.”
By following, you chose your own news sources and are getting a highly personalized news (or information if you don’t like the word news) stream.
That’s powerful. How it evolves, I have no idea.
April 6th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
[…] What I learned Friday night on Twitter :: Online Media Cultist - Eric has an interesting post of seeing and reading about events in a Twitter real-time basis. Made for a fun and interesting to read. […]
April 6th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Very interesting question, Jack. I suppose most of them are “news” in one way or another. I think one of the true benefits of Twitter is that it’s stuff that’s unique and and accessible. It’s news, information, updates, gossip, and chatter that’s difficult to find elsewhere, aggregated nicely on my own personal feed on my Twitter profile.
Some of it is true news that’s ahead of the curve, and some of it feels like you’re listening in on an “inside” chat between web insiders.
I think you’re right in saying that it’s something of a highly personalized news service. And let’s remember too that the short bursts — 140 characters max each — fits in so nicely. That lets people post via mobile as well as web, it makes posting and keeping up both very easy.
Just thinking now that keeping up with 300 or 400 feeds (and some keep up with far more somehow!) isn’t quite insane on Twitter. That too really contributes to building a large and vibrant community.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:27 am
I agree that you do get quite a mix when paying attention. I enjoy the benefits of learning my my network but sometimes it’s frustrating because you do encounter “all kinds.” Most frustrating to me are the people who are only interested in shouting out tweets as if in a crowded room in a party, but only speaking to themselves, announcing what they are doing (and puffing themselves, “At airport, waiting for plane to give big keynote at big conference, for big people”). Then there’s people you want to converse with who will respond to you if you @theirname, but have no interest in your conversations otherwise (obvious because they don’t and won’t follow you, no matter how many times you have conversed with them back and forth). I’ve posted about my use of Twitter quite a bit on my blog and I it’s helped me and my group of educators quite a bit, but the jury is still out about how long this is going to stick around.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Lee, you bring up some good points about tailoring the list of Twitterers that you follow to meet your interests. For example, it’s easy enough to stop following those who “shout out” (and you can even block people that truly bug you).
And as for those who only respond when you give them an @theirname… sounds like they’re following your tweets, that sounds like a good thing, right?
April 7th, 2008 at 10:02 am
[…] What I learned Friday night on Twitter […]
April 7th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Eric, dropping by from Louis Gray’s site. Love this post on Twitter. I’m inspired to do a similar post in the future!
April 7th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Thanks so much Daryl, really appreciate it!
It’s getting difficult to not write about Twitter everyday for me lately.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I know exactly what you mean. I think it’s probably the subject most written about on my blog as well! Looking forward to reading more from you.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I’ve certainly known myself to go through obsessive phases, so I’m curious to see if my affection for Twitter will be the same six months from now. I was a relatively early adopter, then drifted away for a period (along with blogging!) during a particularly busy stretch at work, but now am back on (off?) the wagon. But for now it’s fun and I’m certainly learning a lot about the site and community by writing about it and thinking about it. Glad you enjoyed!
April 9th, 2008 at 11:59 am
[…] What I learned Friday night on Twitter […]
April 13th, 2008 at 3:27 am
[…] also picked up what you can learn in one night on Twitter from Eric Berlin, an experiment I’m definitely going to try out in the next week or so. […]