Is anyone using Twitter? As with most of these social sites I’m not sure how useful it will be, but I’m curious as to how it works. And again, you need friends on it to figure it out! I’m intrigued that it seems happy to send me SMSes to my international mobile phone to update me on my friends’ activities without charging me a thing. So far I only have one friend (thanks Elin!) but I suppose with a lot of friends the SMS thing might get a bit much. We’ll see. Anyway, if you’re on Twitter, let me know!
(And yes, I am still writing my DAC paper, it’s just that I needed another example of a social networking site and well, when I write I need to intersperse it all with little expeditions online. And I’ve revised all the way up to page five now, only three and a half to go, and really, it’s looking a lot better than feared though of course it still has heaps of potential for improvement…)
Jeremy
I’m clioweb on Twitter. Just added you. I’ve been meaning to take some time to play around with the Twitter API. A few folks are creating “lifelines” or “lifestreams” with their Twitter feed, Flickr feed, del.icio.us feed, blog feed, etc. Here’s a good example.
There’s also a nice WordPress plugin, Twitter Updater that sends a notification to Twitter when you publish a post.
Torger ?ge Sinnes
Not exactly Twitter, but definitely worth taking a look at! Clipmarks is possibly beating Scrybe on the finish line…
Alessandro
Actually I have used Twitter for some time but I have found Jaiku much more interesting. (At least on my Nokia N73)
McChris
I’m using Twitter and having quite a good time.
larskflem
i’m using twitter, but the need and fun of it changes. the sms’s are fun to have, but as your social twitter-network expands they can get a bit annoying. and i’m not really sure what i’m paying
Jill
I added a bunch of A-list bloggers I don’t really know to my friends list to get some actioan and set it to send updates to my phone – which was sort of well, cool in a so what sort of a way. Might be more interesting with real friends, but I’ll probably turn it off pretty soon.
I’m pretty sure I don’t pay for it though. I certainly didn’t give them my credit card number, and in Norway you never pay to RECEIVE an SMS. I would have paid for the SMS I sent them to start with, but that’s just a few kroner for an international SMS.
Jill
Clipmarks, Scrybe, Jaiku? How does one ever keep UP with all this stuff!
oso
I’m on it, but still not sure if it makes me more informed or more distracted. Or both.
Meanwhile, I’m amazed that you don’t have to pay for incoming SMS in Norway. Cingular would charge me around $10 a day if I had twitter updates going to my phone.
Liz Lawley
My radar is tingling on Twitter. It’s getting adopted by people whose instincts I trust, and I’m intrigued by the way it integrates with IM and SMS, which makes it much more attractive to the younger set.
What I really like about it is the fact that it takes two very seductive things–IM away/status messages and text messages from friends–and not only makes them super easy to broadcast, but also provides a degree of permanence so you can go back and see the trails that you and others have left.
There’s something important here, and I think it’s actually narrative in nature. It’s not just the message you get right now…it’s the collection of messages, over time, and the story they tell. And the almost infinite variety of mashups of those narratives that occur when you look at someones “with friends” page and see what their social network is doing. When you jump between members of a loosely connected social group, you see repetitions of some information, with some gaps filled in differently based on their other connections.
Anyhow, I haven’t had time to think coherently about this (it’s grading week here at RIT), but that’s my current impression.
Jill
I agree about the narrativity – but isn’t this duplicating what already exists? I mean, Facebook does exactly the same thing (albeit without SMSing it to you) and keep trails stored too. And as I understand it people just stay in Facebook and IM each other within it.
You’re right that this appears to be a kind of thing – the status msg that is stored – that is becoming increasinly popular. Hm.
Liz Lawley
This is different from Facebook because the networks are more obvious, and because of the lightweight implementation. Facebook updates require you to be at your computer, logged into the site. Twitter gets heavy use via IM and SMS–it’s “presence on the go,” ideally suited to mobile users and those without their own computer.
Oyvind
I’m with Liz: “Itís getting adopted by people whose instincts I trust”. So true.
I use it a bit, but keep forgetting to update it.
http://twitter.com/oyvind
William Wend
I am wpwend42 on Twitter. I incorporated it into my blog via a badge. Each morning I update it when I wake up with what I will be doing for the day.
Lady Banana
Im using Twitter.. and posted a similar post on my blog recently..
I am (surprise surprise)ladybanana on there…
You’re welcome to add me 🙂
Chuck
I just joined Twitter and added you as a friend. You’ll recognize me as “chutry.” Like oso, the jury is still out for me. At this point, I think it’s just another distraction. One friend is using it to keep in touch with people at SxSW, and if I had a little more time, I’d experiment with it at the conference I’m attending this weekend. But I should probably write the paper I’m presenting instead.
N O W H E R E . N O W . H E R E » Blog Archive » tweet-tweet
[…] In between things like grading papers, prepping for a class on the Aeneid and one on Citizen Kane (how they connect? they don’t – long story) – I’m testing out twitter, which I came across at Jill Walker’s (where else?). […]