Twitter and the Social Net
Innovation in the world of communication via the Internet never sleeps. Someone, somewhere is constantly thinking of some new — thing — that can provide some utility. And if it becomes widely adopted then some Silicon Valley angel is bound to dump a boatload of money on it — even if magic glasses and powerful cannabis are required to see an actual business model for it.
Twitter came into the world in 2006 though it didn’t really gain traction among the digerati until sometime last year when it exploded and became the “next BIG thing”. Once the the usual suspects of Web celebrities jumped on the bandwagon, heaven and earth began to move for the developers of this interesting application.
In a nutshell, Twitter permits folks to publish a short clip of text — no more than 140 characters at a time which, as was well-calculated, made it perfect for texting from a mobile phone (a mobile phone is not required to use Twitter). Friends subscribed to your feed receive your updates and so it goes day and night without end.
In this context, “friends” is a Potemkin facade since most people don’t know everyone that they follow on any social network. There’s a continuing competition among Web celebs like Leo Laporte and Jason Calacanis to see who can get the most “friends” subscribed to their Twitter feed. Each have something in excess of 20,000 followers. The trick here is that the plebeians are reading what these self-important boobs are twitting but the boobs can’t possibly read 10 updates a day from their 20,000 wide-eyed followers so you see it’s a reasonably one-sided “friendship”.
Nevertheless, if you can build a social network of like-minded folks, then a tool like Twitter can be a valuable asset for the rapid exchange of information.
And as you might expect, there are dozens of radio amateurs already making use of Twitter. I’m currently following a couple dozen and it’s interesting to read little snippets throughout the day from them. A typical “tweet” might be as simple as:
“Just got home from work and looking forward to a little 40m CW”
At other times URLs of interesting Web articles, blog postings or pictures might be included. What constitutes the “content” is generally less important than the kinship of those exchanging tidbits and thoughts with their friends in the cloud.
You can interact with Twitter by signing up and using your Web browser — but a client application makes using Twitter much easier. At the moment, I’m using something called Twhirl (there are plenty other free clients to choose from). It “tweets” whenever a new message comes in from someone I follow and it provides a dirt simple interface to reply to messages or to send my own.
An entire industry has grown up around Twitter — and one new offering is something called, Tweet Scan, which is a bit like a search engine for Twitter feeds. You enter a word or a phrase and it searches the entire Twitterverse for a match. That’s a big assist for birds of a feather in their attempt to flock together.
Here’s a Tweet Scan for the phrase “ham radio“. Give it a click and you’ll see what I mean.
Many more radio amateurs are going to have to climb on the bandwagon in order for us to really grasp it’s potential as yet another online communication medium that adds value to amateur radio. Registration is free online and there’s no extra charge for the addiction. If you decide to give Twitter a whirl then feel free to look for me, my new username is ke9vee.
73 de Jeff
May 11th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Jeff,
I just happened to be messing around with twitter. I now understand roughly what it does but I am still searching for The Point. I am now “Following” you on twitter…..show me the way !
73, Bob K0NR
May 11th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Hi Bob — looks like you are getting in to the swing of Twitter already. Nice to be following you!
I think it requires a certain critical mass to make this thing interesting — if there is only a small handful of hams using Twitter then it’s utility is questionable and the small handful could simply use instant messaging. That wouldn’t be practical if our “circle” of friends was 50 or 100.
Having a browser plug-in or a standalone client application to handle ‘Tweets’ makes a lot more sense than using just the Web browser interface — just an FYI.
Here’s a quick two-minute video that’s well worth a look:
One other thing — use that Tweet Scan link for “ham radio” in my article to find more hams to “follow”…
Also, when you start following some hams, go to their page on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/username) and see who they are following and you might find more interesting people to follow.
Good luck and see you on Twitter!
73 de Jeff
May 11th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Anyone who references a “Potemkin facade ” in their blog is definitely on my “must read” often list!
Your Twitter Post motivated me and I’ve signed up and explored the “Twitter” world. Yes, I’m “following” Ke9Vee! Jeezus that Twitter Vision with the Google map is amazing. On the one hand who cares? On the other, once filtering is doable to your own group, the geo tag concept is mind blowing. It could singularly change EmComm in a stroke. Tie D-Star/APRS to Twitter and the possibilites are endless.
Regards,
mike
May 11th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
The technology is easy to understand, the “why” of Twitter eludes though.
Perhaps it is just me, but I can’t imagine loosing time to “watching” someone else’s life through Twitter.
But then again I am the sort of person who will look for places without internet or cellphone coverage for my vacations.
Guess I wouldn’t understand.
73
Steve
K9ZW
http://k9zw.wordpress.com/
May 11th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I don’t think it’s an issue of “understanding” Steve. Clearly you’ve looked at the model and it doesn’t fit your lifestyle or information need. Guess what? I’m not sure it “fits mine” either. I’m just giving it a shot to see how it plays. Surely much of it is just noise. (Like the old Russian Woodpecker?! :) )
Anyway, I’m working about 60 hours a week so I won’t be a big Twitter generator. And I’m trying to do some substantive reading on weekends. If Jeff would quit putting these interesting posts up, I could get something done!
Cheers,
mike (enjoyed your site….I’ll be checking back.)
May 11th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Getting to the “why” of Twitter leads into a circular argument that asks why use an HF radio when a cell phone works better and is infinitely less expensive…?
I appreciate the explanation that Twitter provides a communication medium between blog posts (see the YouTube video referenced in my previous comment). Let’s say you are about to sit down to watch that History Channel special about Tesla — you probably wouldn’t make that a blog post — but someone, somewhere might well appreciate that “heads up”. By dropping a simple one line message that the show is about to come on, you help enhance the experience…
It isn’t intuitively obvious to me at the moment, what all of the potential uses for this specific communication tool might be. Who’d have thunk 25 years ago that packet digipeaters could be put to use relaying position reporting (APRS) telemetry?
What might evolve from this could lead to absolutely nothing — or the next “big thing” in ham radio. I’d settle for something in between. Ham radio could certainly exist in its present form without the advent of email but I think its creation has made the experience much richer and more interesting.
I suspect we will say the same thing about social networking. Eventually.
73 de Jeff
May 11th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Its OK to mess around with technology just for the fun of it.
Most of ham radio fits this definition.
73, Bob K0NR
May 11th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Ok - I’m going to give Twitter a Twitch for the Dayton week at least.
have it basically set up.
K9ZW as the user of course!
Now to see if anyone is interested in what I do…. hah…
73
Steve
K9ZW
http://k9zw.wordpress.com/
May 11th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
more thoughts on my blog
http://www.k0nr.com/blog/2008/05/twitter-yet-another-web-thing.html
my twitter name is “robtwitte”
May 14th, 2008 at 8:56 am
I understand the appeal, but it is indeed a personal preference idea. I find myself falling into the Luddite camp on twitter-pation. But it is an interesting concept, and does have useful applications.
O’course, I’m stuck way back with the e-mail, e-mail list, and blogroll geezers. How “last century”!
Truth is, after 20 years of a job/career that required me to be on-call 24/7/365, I now suffer an overwhelming desire to communicate only on my own time frame. Were it not for schooling the young-uns, I’d have also long ago removed my self from city life. My need for immediacy is zilch. Becoming twitterpated is thus unlikely on my part.
My cell phone is also intentionally text-message disabled, often turned off or left unanswered, and I never did feel an urge to install Skype….
May 14th, 2008 at 11:56 am
been twittering for a while - its ambient intimacy at its finest…
i added you to my list - my name on there is totalpardo…
btw - the site looks VERY nice… great look over the past templates…