Online Media Cultist

I love Howard Fineman. He’s one of the best political writers in the business. He’s great on Hardball, and his coverage and analysis of elections and the pure sport of politics is second-to-none.

But still, it’s hilarious when non-tech savvy journalists wade into those electronic weeds.

The Internet is now a part of politics as it never has before. As Fineman rightly notes, it was Howard Dean’s (and Joe Trippi’s) success in raising money and building grassroots community online in 2003 that ushered political campaigns into a new era. Politics and politicians have always followed the money, and therefore 2008 presidential hopefuls are online and actively seeking advantage, dollars, and voters. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama broke away from the long tradition of officially announcing a presidential campaign in a hometown dripping from its very pores in Americana, for example, and instead announced via online video.

Politicians are now seeking ways to integrate technology into their relationship with constituents as well. Obama has made at least one appearance on popular left-leaning political blog Daily Kos during the run-up to the pivotal 2006 midterm elections, and ‘08 presidential aspirant John Edwards delivers regular posts on Twitter, the newest rage of the tech-bloggy set. (Edwards staff has thanked his “followers” on Twitter for all of their words of support over the recent announcement that Elizabeth Edward’s breast cancer has returned.)

Journalists are trying to keep up. It’s chuckle-worthy every time that Hardball’s Chris Matthews (another favorite of mine) announces that features and video clips can be found online. He has a look of smirking wonder that seems to say, “There’s this thing called the Internet and people actually do stuff there, can you believe it?”

This week, in the midst of an interesting-as-usual piece called “Out of Control,” which looks at how technology and the media now leave political candidates with less control over the message of campaigns than ever before, Fineman let this beauty slip: “Last time I checked, MySpace, by far the leading social networking blogosphere, had more than 60 million registered members.”

The leading social networking blogosphere. If only he had just scaled it back half a notch and left it at “leading social networking website.” Or platform, tool, place, locale, or e-shack of misbegotten ill designed schlock. But blogosphere has a pretty clear if broad connotation, representing that vast array of millions of blogs, most of which are separate online entities from one another.

MySpace certainly has millions of profiles, all of which have a blog feature. So I suppose it would be okay to call MySpace a blogosphere unto itself, though I would wager that’s going a bit too far. And it would be definitely be inaccurate to compare that “blogosphere” with the blogosphere.

So MySpace is not a social networking blogosphere. It’s a huge and monstrous social networking site. The blogosphere is its own universe (thus the ’sphere!) and many who occupy it are more than happy to not be associated with MySpace.

Howard, we love you, but you gaffed a little on this one!

After a brief and fleeting spell of ambivalence, I was sucked straight into the depths of the Twitter vortex, the finger-snapping, trigger-happy, easy-to-use “mini-blogging” application that lets you send short messages to your group of “followers” via web, IM, or SMS. At its essence – I’ve spent some time thinking about this – I think that Twitter is yet another shortcut to meeting the compelling need for people to express themselves and partake in the ever quickening Internet conversation.

It’s really simple and really easy too, which always helps and usually is at the heart of great and powerful tools and products. Sign up, add a friend or two, compel one or two people to “follow” your words of infinite wisdom (say whatever you want in answer to the question “What are you doing now?” just making sure it’s under the 140 character limit) and you are on your way.

The more I play with Twitter, I think it’s a keeper.

Another theory: Twitter may be a tool that particularly attracts those who already blog and are therefore already used to publishing online and interested in both attracting and audience and entering the Internet conversation. While I spend a lot of time looking at social networks such as MySpace, I never find a great and compelling reason to stick around. I particularly like MyBlogLog because it’s a great networking tool for bloggers (and an experience that lives outside the site through the use of its great blog log widget), but it’s simply not fun in the way that Twitter can be.

Other Twitter thoughts, culled over the weekend:

* Twitter has the potential to replace your RSS reader. It’s fun to get Mashable and Wired and Techmeme updates via Twitter, and lots of people simply send links around, which becomes a hyperkinetic and viral method of information sharing.

* I’m apt to add twitter friends that I wouldn’t add to my rss reader. Twitter’s an outstanding way to get the shorthand thoughts and tid bits from blogging luminaries (or whomever, it’s up to you!) that you don’t have time to read on a regular basis. For example, I don’t read Dave Winer’s or Robert Scoble’s respective blogs, but I’ve enjoyed following their Twitter conversations thus far.

* Twitter has fake profiles. These include Borat, Darth Vader, Bill Clinton, and fake Jason Calacanis and Nick Denton profiles. I take this is yet another sign that the Twitter aquiver with buzz. Take note that the John Edwards page is real!

* Lots of Twitter supporting sites/tools popping up. I’ll just mention one here, because it deserves some attention. Twittervision is a mesmerizing Google Maps mashup that lets you watch Twitter messages emerge all across the globe in real time. If you like Digg Spy, you’ll like Twittervision.

* Bold proclamations. Jason Calacanis declares that 90% of his blogging will now be delivered via Twitter. Personally, I love Twitter for its capacity for “casual” blogging, which gives you the ability to loosen up and say whatever you want without worrying overly much about spelling, grammar, or coherence. Blogging is a place to be a bit more structured and meaningful. Of course Twitter and blogs are merely platforms and the great thing is that everybody can help define them.

* Great quotes. I’ve seen some great quotes just over the last few days.

From Steve Rubel:
* JCal [Jason Calacanis] will become the first blogger to turn a full-time Twitterer
* Great businesses and greater ideas will begin as conversations on Twitter.

From Jason Calacanis:
* Who’s building a twitter/google adsense widget? I need to monetize this medium before [Nick] Denton.
* Twitter is like cb radio without the static

* Are people talking about Twitter? That would be a 10-4, as this chart displaying the “twitterfication of the blogosphere” shows.

Maybe that’s going a little far, but a lot of people are certainly talking about Twitter, the so called “micro blogging” service that fires super short and super simple messages to groups of contacts based around the premise of: “what are you doing right now?”

That’s the spirit of the Internet, really, capturing the essence of what’s new and what’s hot and what’s going on this very second, and Twitter has found a way to capture some buzz, at the least, by harnessing that wave. I’ve just returned to the country after a month of mostly being offline (on a quest to find hobbits, as legend has it), and Twitter Fever has emerged as the big story during my absence.

Pete Cashmore at Mashable pulls out the “cat blogging” card in a snort-worthy piece entitled “The Evolution of Blogging, Cat Version.” (Cat blogging is a derogatory term for navel-gazing bloggers who write about what they had for breakfast, how they felt after cleaning the dishes, and yes, what Fluffy McWhiskers has been up to of late.) Pete breaks down the issue perfectly by depicting two camps: those who see a “new blogging paradigm - short, to-the-point messages that let your friends, family and the world know exactly where you are and what you’re doing, every second of the day” and those who scratch their heads (or navels) and ask, “what’s the point?” It’s pretty easy to see where Pete stands on this one.

Mathew Ingram is by measures kinder in writing that the name Twitter “…is perfect, since it conveys precisely the kind of instantaneous, frivolous, and maybe even scatter-brained nature of the app itself, like a bird twittering.” He admits, however, that it is “… a pretty cool way of sending out short thoughts.”

While admitting that it’s “antithetical to life-hacking,” Chris Brogan of lifehack.org is a big fan and opines on five ways to use Twitter for good, including quick surveys of friends, news briefings (you can sign up for RSS-like updates from sources such as CNN and BBC), “friendsourcing” (using contact lists to seek out resources or information), and sharing information.

Marshall Kirkpatrick runs down Top 10 Twitter Things, which includes searchability of Twitter entries on blog and other search engines, the applicability of the product to save lives during a natural disaster, and BART updates for Bay Area commuters.

I spent some time messing with Twitter today and don’t think I’ll be utilizing it in my daily online activities, but I can see how people will find unique and personalized ways to use the service. Webomatica defines Twitter’s realm as “a small space between IM, MyBlogLog, email, and blogs.” Steve Rubel, for instance, enjoys the fact that Twitter allowed him to find out that Scooter Libby had been convicted – thanks to a Twitter message sent out by Jason Calacanis – through the service’s IM applicability (it can also be used via SMS).

Another pretty cool use of Twitter: Democratic presidential aspirant John Edwards has joined in, so you can keep up with his undoubtedly hectic schedule as he attempts to capture the White House.

My guess is that over the long term, regular Twitter users will fall into three broad categories: manic warriors of the web 2.0 edge (Rubel, Calacanis), obsessive social networkers (a selection of MySpacers), and niche users (San Francisco commuters).