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March 7, 2007
Twitter Thoughts
Instead of finishing my paper for SCMS, I've been checking out the latest social networking site, Twitter. So far, like Jill, I'm still not quite sure how useful Twitter will be, at least for my interests, but I generally feel some obligation to see how sites like Twitter work.
In Jill's comments, Liz raises the valuable point that Twitter combines the communications features of IM and text messages with the permanence of blogging archives. Karina has suggested that using Twitter might be a useful way of keeping track of people at conferences, and if I had more time, I'd experiment with it at SCMS. I've never really used text messages that often, so I don't know how much experimenting with Twitter at this particular conference would tell me.
Meanwhile, McChris observes that Twitter's limited post length of 140 characters potentially invites relatively inane posts (which would certainly describe my early contributions to Twitterdom). Still, I'll be interested to see what uses of Twitter emerge. And if you want to become my Twitter friend, that's cool, too.
Posted by chuck at March 7, 2007 10:13 AM
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Comments
Like you I always try these things out when I hear about them. I think that like other social networking online, it makes a big difference whether people you already know are doing it. I would be more interested in twitter if I my friends were twittering.
Posted by: michael at March 7, 2007 11:42 AM
If McChris hadn't invited me, I might not have bothered with Twitter. I have a bad habit of joining social networking sites and then only making a half-hearted effort to invite other friends, which usually means I lose interest quickly.
Posted by: Chuck at March 7, 2007 12:09 PM
What prompted me to invite you was your del.icio.us bonanza yesterday; I thought you might need another social software app for your SCMS procrastination.
Posted by: McChris at March 7, 2007 2:45 PM
Actually you have mzn to thank for that bonanza. I'll be using those links for years, I'd imagine. The biggest treasure by far, IMO, was Todd Haynes' Superstar, which I'd never gotten around to seeing until yesterday. Talk about a great procrastination break.
Posted by: Chuck at March 7, 2007 3:33 PM
Oh, you're welcome. I am actually planning to put a big sidebar list up on my blog of all these classics of yesteryear (like the one at About Last Night only a bit more descriptive). Yes, I too have procrastination.
Posted by: michael newman at March 7, 2007 3:41 PM
Michael, that would be really cool. I've been too lazy to add much to my sidebar. Maybe this summer. I'll probably use most of those videos for teaching purposes (i.e., allowing students to watch "Musketeers of Pig Alley" on their own schedule).
Posted by: Chuck at March 7, 2007 4:02 PM