[insert pun on "Twitter" here]
Fri 9 Mar 2007, 5:00 pm
Updated 2006-03-13 21:40 MDT: *sigh* Whatever Twitter is, one thing it isn’t at the moment is fast. I’m taking out the JavaScript badge so that the page will actually load.
Updated 2006-03-09 8:56 MST: I have edited this post a billion times over the past half hour trying to get the JavaScript badge to work; turns out that WordPress is very fussy about JS within posts.
Iris asks for someone to throw her a clue on Twitter, the microblogging, what-I’m-doing-this-second, IM/SMS/Web dealybop that is the flavor of the moment.
I mentioned it in my post on Monday and I have been messing around with it since.
The setup is that you enter a brief message (140 characters or less) that answers the question “What are you doing?” You can subscribe to friends’ messages and keep up with what they are doing. You can see it all on the web, or you can get IM or SMS updates (though I can’t get the IM updates to work for me on Adium for the Mac). Required background reading from Liz Lawley and Anil Dash.
It’s like a new online toy. I think that the hour-by-hour update is a big waste of time (note to self: stop doing that), but I could see using it once or twice a day as a little update on what’s going on with me.
I don’t know if I’ll continue to use it much, and I doubt I’ll continue to keep a Twitter window open all day, but I could see using it as Evan Williams does as a brief status line across the top of the blog.
David Rothman wants to know why should libraryfolk care about Twitter?. It has–as far as I can tell–nothing to do with libraries, but it does have something to do with groups of people who know each other to some degree, but don’t see each other much, who want to keep in touch in a relatively non-obtrusive way. People like library bloggers–my imaginary friends.
Twitter is also making a big push at South by Southwest Interactive this year. They encourage people at that conference to add sxsw as a friend, and then they can track everyone at the conference. I can see this at a conference like Internet Librarian, where attendees could just Twitter where they are going for dinner or their present location if they want company, or are looking to meet up with friends. Or random stalkers. Whatever.
My crystal ball is broken, so I don’t know if anyone will still care about Twitter in four weeks. Or Monday, for that matter: Twitter has been a bit erratic lately as so many people seem to be trying it out and hammering their servers.
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- File under: Blogs and blogging,Social software
- Comments? 6
“I can see this at a conference like Internet Librarian, where attendees could just Twitter where they are going for dinner or their present location if they want company, or are looking to meet up with friends.”
Yeah, except that would mean we’d actually need to have reliable (and perhaps free?) wireless at one of these conferences. Sadly, that has rarely been the case. ;-)
Comment by Meredith — March 9, 2007 @ 6:10 pm
[...] Steve Lawson blogs: [...]
Pingback by Library Stuff » Blog Archives » Twitter at Conferences and More. — March 9, 2007 @ 6:23 pm
I think that’s an excellent summary–not only as to why some libloggers are all a-twitter (or maybe just twittering as a trial), but also the same answer I had for David’s question: That is, people blogging about this find it interesting, not necessarily something libraries need to be involved in.
Nothing wrong with that–either twitter being interesting (if you’re the right personality type and always or almost always connected) or blogging about it even though it may have no real use in library practice.
Comment by walt crawford — March 9, 2007 @ 6:29 pm
I think it depends which angle of Twitter you’re looking at when thinking about how libraries might use this service. For example, at my previous job, we ran a consortial catalog for 77 libraries. Sometimes that catalog went down, and when it did, we were lucky to send out a fax to the libraries with a status report. If it wasn’t a network issue, we would send email, too.
But if we could also have used the SMS feature of Twitter to send out notices, including updating a one-line status on an external blog or website, that might have some value. Sometimes the value in these tools can be to help staff as much as patrons.
I think Liz hit the nail on the head, too, with her theory about “presence” gaining emphasis, and I think that will have implications for libraries down the road so it’s a good trend to track.
Comment by Jenny Levine — March 9, 2007 @ 8:25 pm
I won’t begrudge anyone who wants to use Twitter, as long as they don’t force me to use it. Personally, it doesn’t sound very useful for my lifestyle. If I’m away from work anytime between 9 AM and 6 PM Monday thru Friday, it’s indicated on the sign-out board in the lounge. If my wife, friends, or relatives want to find out where I’m at, they can contact me. If something bad has happened, Twitter ain’t gonna do me no good. Besides, it sounds like too much fuss for regular usage (as Steve says, no more than once or twice per day seems sufficient) Besides, sometimes it’s nice just to totally “disconnect,” and not to feel obliged to report on yet something else.
Comment by Jason — March 10, 2007 @ 1:33 pm
Thoroughly unimpressed. I’ve been using it for a few days, and even if the functionality worked as advertised (it doesn’t), I don’t need this degree of banality in my life.
Comment by John Bickar — March 13, 2007 @ 8:43 am