Comments on: Are you Content not to Contend with Content? http://www.maxtb.com/2009/06/23/f/ Tell me something I don't know. Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:19:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Hedgie http://www.maxtb.com/2009/06/23/f/comment-page-1/#comment-7 Hedgie Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:59:20 +0000 http://maxtb.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/are-you-content-not-to-contend-with-content#comment-7 Excellent points made by yourself and Wayne above - twitter is doing something big, and we are still in the process of working out what. And I must say, even someone as technologically challenged as me felt that twitter the site was pretty basic - seriously undercoded - when I signed up. It feels like it's held together metaphorically with sticky tape.<br /><br />As an information junkie I get high on the random apparent chaos and speed of info transfer on twitter.<br /><br />It's a left-brain/right-brain thing: Google is left-brain - you ask your question and you get your hierarchy of links. With twitter, you make lots of connections with people who may share some of your interests - they post links to stuff you may have missed or not have known about: instead of a static one-off list you get something organic and evolving over time. It's like being in a fantastically stocked bookshop and browsing, you get these beautiful serendipitous connections. But you can search successfully for specifics as well.<br /><br />News-wise I heard about Air France 447 on twitter first; the death of Michael Jackson; the Iranian election . . . and yesterday the Australian tsunami warning just 4 minutes after it was issued. Excellent points made by yourself and Wayne above – twitter is doing something big, and we are still in the process of working out what. And I must say, even someone as technologically challenged as me felt that twitter the site was pretty basic – seriously undercoded – when I signed up. It feels like it's held together metaphorically with sticky tape.

As an information junkie I get high on the random apparent chaos and speed of info transfer on twitter.

It's a left-brain/right-brain thing: Google is left-brain – you ask your question and you get your hierarchy of links. With twitter, you make lots of connections with people who may share some of your interests – they post links to stuff you may have missed or not have known about: instead of a static one-off list you get something organic and evolving over time. It's like being in a fantastically stocked bookshop and browsing, you get these beautiful serendipitous connections. But you can search successfully for specifics as well.

News-wise I heard about Air France 447 on twitter first; the death of Michael Jackson; the Iranian election . . . and yesterday the Australian tsunami warning just 4 minutes after it was issued.

]]> By: Wayne Smallman http://www.maxtb.com/2009/06/23/f/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Wayne Smallman Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:57:52 +0000 http://maxtb.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/are-you-content-not-to-contend-with-content#comment-6 Twitter is neither micro-blogging or IM. Pownce was a micro-blog. Twitter is a status update tool, with a smaller character allowance than the status update feature on Facebook.<br /><br />Twitter gets by not because it's good in any way, because it's not, it's a weak, insubstantial service that poorly implemented and managed.<br /><br />Twitter survives because of its network of users who seem to have bent it all out of shape to try and make it do things services like Pownce did by default.<br /><br />Now, I might sound like a complete hypocrite, given how much I use Twitter myself, where it not for the fact that enough people use public transport and aren't happy with where that's taking them, either.<br /><br />Twitter isn't the last word. It's a step in the direction of something else, certainly better than what we have now. Twitter is neither micro-blogging or IM. Pownce was a micro-blog. Twitter is a status update tool, with a smaller character allowance than the status update feature on Facebook.

Twitter gets by not because it's good in any way, because it's not, it's a weak, insubstantial service that poorly implemented and managed.

Twitter survives because of its network of users who seem to have bent it all out of shape to try and make it do things services like Pownce did by default.

Now, I might sound like a complete hypocrite, given how much I use Twitter myself, where it not for the fact that enough people use public transport and aren't happy with where that's taking them, either.

Twitter isn't the last word. It's a step in the direction of something else, certainly better than what we have now.

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