Archive for the 'Twitter' Category

Twitter (again)

Published on 25 April 2007 in Twitter, connecting and technology. 0 Comments

I haven’t been using Twitter very much these past few weeks. Just haven’t had much reason, or time to post updates. Also, the thought of posting “doing citation count”, and “still doing citation count”, and “still…” depressed me no end. I’ve much preferred to attend a conference vicariously, and learn about everyone’s hectic and interesting lives. I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying that aspect of Twitter. As David Weinberger says: “Twitter is about the intimacy of details.”

I switched off phone updates, though, as it was very distracting to have my mobile phone constantly vibrating throughout meetings, but I might switch it on again for a while. I’ve been getting my updates via RSS, but that’s always got a slight delay to it.

I haven’t got that many Twitter friends at all (only 19!) but I don’t particularly mind as it’s still relatively easy to keep up with that number of friends. I could have more, but I haven’t added quite a few people because I didn’t recognise them at all (even after pondering their profiles) and found myself disconcerted at the thought of adding complete strangers. And yet I have added a few people who live here in Perth, whom I have not met. For some reason I like the fact that I have these ‘friends’ who live in my hometown. I suppose we do have something in common!

For a while after I started blogging, every time I wandered around the city, I looked at passing strangers and wondered if they blogged. Now I wonder if they twitter.

A bit later: M reminded me of this cartoon from Hugh MacLeod which says it all, really:

More thoughts on Twitter

Published on 19 March 2007 in Twitter and connecting. 2 Comments

I just took the Twitter party badge thing off this page. Not because I don’t like it, but because it seems to have been slowing things down a bit lately.

I haven’t been using Twitter much these past few days, but that’s mainly because the Instant Messaging side of it seems to be down a lot and I don’t want to blow out my mobile phone bill too much. I suppose I could use the web interface, but too much web can be distracting, especially at work. CW sees link. Oo shiny link… must click…

I’ve been keeping my Twitter notifications switched to my mobile phone and it’s been very amusing to have my normally inactive mobile constantly beeping or vibrating. People seem to be using it to carry out conversations with each other (which can be interesting when you only get one side of the conversation, because you are only following one person and not the person they are talking to), and twittering things that might also go into a blog, like interesting links.

I’ve been enjoying hearing from people occasionally during the day, via Twitter. Using my mobile phone means I feel a lot more connected, especially when I am away from my desk. A few commentators and observers are predicting that the next big thing, development, evolution, of The Web will be mobile. danah boyd reckons that “geographic-dependent context will be the next key shift. GPS, mesh networks, articulated presence, etc. People want to go mobile and they want to use technology to help them engage in the mobile world.” (She also talks about the barriers to this mobile revolution, namely, the carriers/providers.) Have you ever been out and about and wished you could just look something up, take and upload a photo now, chat with so-and-so halfway around the world and get them to send you a link to their experience…?

The 2007 Horizon Report (on the impact of emerging technologies on higher education) suggests that mobile phones are “becoming the storehouses of our digital lives, containing a growing share of our personal and professional resources and data.” (see page 15 of the report, which, incidentally, is worth reading for the other predictions. Even if it does make me feel like we are hopelessly behind here in Western Australia.)

Apart from all the conversation, Twittter is generating some interesting apps. This morning I have been amusing myself watching twittervision, which is a neat mashup combining Twitter’s public feeds and the Google maps API. All the activity seems to be happening in the US and Europe - so far nothing’s appeared in Australia. Are there just not enough twitterers down here?

And then there’s Twitterfiction. Intriguing. (Thanks, PigPog!)

*Pic shows my Twitter friends‘ avatars.

Twitter

Published on 11 March 2007 in Twitter, experiment and blogosphere. 4 Comments

I was resigned to not blogging tomorrow - I don’t know a) if I’ll have much any access to a computer, and b) if I have access to a computer if I’ll have much time to do any blogging - but I will have my mobile phone, and perhaps the periodic update won’t be impossible after all. (I was going to lug my Tablet down to Margaret River with me, but I’ve decided I won’t because its wireless card isn’t working, and even if it was, I think that expecting wireless access is overly optimistic.)

Assuming the mobile phone network exists when I get down south today, I’m hoping to do the odd update on my whereabouts and doings using Twitter. (Thanks for digging up the number for non-US users, Morgan! I don’t know why I couldn’t find it - it was driving me bonkers!)

What is Twitter, you ask? Basically it’s a site that allows you to post little snippets about what you’re doing, using either the web, Instant Messaging, or SMS.

Twitter’s doing the rounds in the biblioblogosphere (thanks to David Rothman for reminding me of Libworm!) at the moment. As usual there are roughly two different views of it - the w00t! crowd who love it, and the why would one bother? side. I think I tend toward the woot/positive side. I do agree with Liz Lane Lawley’s point that really only people who know me would want to know what I’m doing. Others have asked how Twitter could be applied to our work - well, we’re not all about our work, are we? We might want to socialise, keep up with our friends, and so on? :)

Some are also asking why or how one would remember to post updates every minute of the day - my response is, why would you do that, unless you have something you want to tell your friends? It’s just another way of communicating, I think.

So, if you do want to see what I’m up to, feel free. I’ve also stuck a “Twitter Party Badge” (displaying what my two friends and I are up to) in this blog’s sidebar.

Having said that, I really hope that mobile phone coverage is okay down there.