The Future Past History of Twitter

Thanks to Professor Joe for this one....

http://mv.asterisco.pt/cat.cgi?A%20Future%20History%20of%20Twitter

Quite entertaining!

However there is a serious point underlying the humour here. Twitter is flavour de Jour. Does it have legs as a utility application?

I am struggling with this question. I do believe that Twitter can have value - I commented on this after the Mumbai attacks and experiencing it at a conference (PCW last November).

But there is so much drivel coming out of the Tweets that people are putting out. We still have bad behavior. Let me give you an example. I follow several bloggers who are what I loosely call "Scoopers" they are in a situation to put out nuggets of information that have importance to the context that is my particular set of interests. However this is where the mining of these nuggets gets hard. Because one of the chaps who does this (and really valuable stuff there is too) also intersperses the tweets of value with absolute drivel about his lunch habits.

So I have come to a conclusion that one thing that unfettered data has unleashed on us is the lack of valuable context. In Newspapers for example the medium creates the context. Thus if a journalist I follow and read for his wisdom publishes in a Newspaper I can easily see and know that he is speaking from his professional view. Imagine if you will that all of a sudden his personal emails appeared right next to his columns? That is how I feel that me (as an audience member) is being "abused". I really dont want to know about his intimate details. I dont want or need to know about what he thinks about the color of the waitress's uniform.

Twitter doesnt care. Indeed there are many social media "channels" or outlets that also subject the reader to the same abuse. Facebook - are you listening.

However my biggest complaint about Twitter is the sheer volume of data that is pushed out unfiltered. So the big part of the history that is missing - and to me the killer Twitter app/behaviour - is/will be the context button.

So someone out there PLEASE invent a Twitter filter mechanism that is going to protect me from this digital garbage that is drowning me.

And here is an appeal. If you must Tweet - then consider that there is a social context to your output but also consider the need for a business context.

Twitter - I think you have to put this into the design and enhance the value of Twitter. I for one as a Tweet watcher will be much happier.

And thank you for limiting your Tweets.... Have a nice day!