Practical Use of Twitter

IN TORONTO last weekend, some of the world's most congenial podcasters leveraged Twitter to connect in meatspace. These were very articulate people who had met virtually. Some had heard one another's voices for more than a year but had never meet in person. By using Twitter, anyone who sent a text message to the Twitter server could update anyone following the flow. Twitter provides the text pipes to the internet. An ocean away, I watched Twitter messages appear on my SonyEricsson screen, reading about people connecting at the baggage carousel, sharing taxicabs from the airport, meeting up across restaurants for an initial handshake and then sharing cross-talk during presentations. Other listeners, like Neville Hobson, use Twitter to seek advice before making purchases.  In the hands of polished conversationalists attending Podcamp Toronto, Twitter emerged as a viable tool of social media. Twitter became the 150 character IRC of the event. I'm doing the same thing with Twitter during the 2007 Irish blog awards in Dublin on Saturday, March 3rd. You're welcome to peek into the message stream if you like. I'll offer text updates from below the pavement of centre city Dublin--a place where my 3G card simply won't work. The updates should appear within minutes via the Twitter badge on my blog but may be delayed up to 12 hours if a Twitter swarm uses the service in Dublin this weekend.

NOTE: If you give Twitter access to your mobile phone, be prepared to accept delays in receiving normal text message traffic.

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Mitch Joel -- "Twitter Is To Blogging What Post-It Notes Are To Notebooks"
Bonus Link: One Twitter-Flickr mashup viewed full-screen in Flash. Via Gregory Chatonsky.
I am twitter.com/topgold/

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Comments

[Conor O'Neill]

I thought it worked really well last night and I'm much less of a cynic about it now.