So What About Twitter?
This is my own follow up to Is Twitter an Approximation of Team Room Osmotic Chatter?
After some months of using Twitter, my conclusion is inconclusive. My usage patterns are fairly clear. I scan it many times a day if I am connected to the interweb. I tweet when I am not busy working, when I want to ask a question to the ether (answers often come from outside of my network of twittermates) or when I am not working because my brain is fried or I am stuck in an airport. Often times a tweet exchange switches to an IM conversation or email thread.
I follow some people who, IMHO, tweet too much of nothing of interest to me so I resolve to fine-tune by network. But that is easier said than done. There was once, not too long ago, a website called WhoShouldIFollow.com that worked pretty well, using some scheme to come up with other people with like interests based on your tweets (I think). But it has disappeared. A similar one has appeared at crazybob.org/twubble (twitter-bubble). It scans your network recursively and tells who is following who outward from yourself. I found a few tweet-mates that way. But it takes time to scan each of them to see if there really is a good match.
I enjoy twitter most when I feel like I have something to contribute to the stream, either useful or clever (by my own humble standards). I have had some interesting things put in my face that I would not have otherwise know about. I like the feeling that other people are talking around me when I am working alone at home. And I can just listen to their conversations without participating if I choose. So it does feel a bit like osmotic team-room chatter.
I came up with one inspiration for twitter-based creativity that I am not ready to announce just yet. I think it will be fun.
The inconclusive conclusion for now is that I will stick with it and try to expand my network, maybe stop following a few people who have a low signal-to-noise ratio in terms of what I am interested in.
This post is like a giant tweet. Summary: who cares about this self-absorbed introspective blather? But maybe it will be useful to someone.
Twitter: rwbrown
