I will go on the record and record my change of heart about Twitter. First a disclaimer. I am still no fan of the mindless crap that is sadly in the majority of Twitter and the lack of a way to synthesize and make valuable the >144 character messages.
That said - I have seen some of the power of Twitter both in a commercial setting such as at PhocusWright 2 weeks ago, and definitely in the case of the updates from Mumbai and Bangkok this past week. This takes the message to the streets where only cell phones are available. Clearly in such markets smartphones are not as prevalent but texting is a way of life more so than perhaps in other first and second world territories, it is here in these geographies where in many cases, texting and therefore twitter are the primary form of communication for many people.
At the very least we can see how information is disseminated commensurate with the medium. In the constant battle inside my head between left and right brain, I can justify this as effective proletarian (read free and uncensored) communication. Just look how far we have come from the lowly fax machines used during the Tiananmen Square revolt to Twitter in Mumbai.
There is a trend here. I was a late comer to Blogging. I originally saw it as mindless chatter. I still think this applies to most blogs and tweets.
However I do see that they have their place. Perhaps more than anything this was brought home during the last week when I was out of contact and away from the web with no access to any form of web other than text messages. Have a look at Tim Hughes's blog for today. http://tims-boot.blogspot.com/ and I think you will see what I mean.
I am therefore chastened, but perhaps inspired to consider how we can find ways to solve my two major objections.
Cheers
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