Shaine Mata

One of the things I picked up this past week was Twitter. You may be wondering what the hell Twitter is. It’s almost like a blog, except that you don’t have endless features and settings. Basically, what Twitter does is help you answer one question: what are you doing? Beyond that, Twitter serves as a PA system for those who provide content and a bulletin board of sorts for groups in special events.

The way Twitter is set up you can have followers, people who are interested in getting updates about what you are doing. Then you can also add friends, people whom you would like to know what they’re doing. Every time you post an update, your followers get the message on their AIM, site, or by SMS. This way, they can follow your activities. The same is true on your part, you can follow what others are doing. Twitter is a one to many transmission.

Twitter has applications beyond the minutiae of people’s lives. If you’re a blogger, you can announce your latest blog post on Twitter. This way, people in your audience can go to your site for the latest post. In this way, Twitter serves as a content notification system. Twitter can also serve to announce any finds you make on the web. All you do is post the URL and others can follow your path in near-realtime. Twitter does answer the question about what you are doing. It also helps you maintain a rapport with your friends.

The best use of Twitter that I have found was at SXSW last week where people were announcing their location so that others could join them. If you’re at a big event, Twitter is a great tool for knowing where everybody is and letting everybody know where you are. BarCampAustin used Twitter to keep us updated on what was coming up, when food would arrive, and when there was an open bar tab. The alternative would be to individually call or SMS everybody, or to set up a meeting place.

Check it out by visiting http://www.twitter.com.

I can think of a practical application for Twitter. You could, for example, have an Amber Alert Twitter. Imagine having a group of citizens on the lookout for a missing child. You could post a license plate number, you could post a link to the child’s photo, and even the link to the kidnapper’s photo.

A neighborhood watch would also be useful for Twitter. Any application where we would benefit from a swarm-like behavior is a good use for Twitter. When you’re in a Twitter group, you have an insight into the collective mind and have an insight into what different parts of your group are doing. In these instances, people outside the group can also keep abreast by visiting your Twitter profile for the latest updates. This would be an awesome window for journalists covering a story to know what’s going on at events and to line up interviews.

What are you doing now? Individually, that question is rather trivial. As a group, the question lets you know where you are relative to others. The only thing that I can think compares to Twitter is the Borg shared consciousness. All members of the Borg have their individual thoughts, but they act as one mind based on what the collective determines. I think Twitter can be a great collaborative tool when you have multiple people dealing with a problem where quick information is vital to a group. I hope to see headlines in the future that highlight such instances.

Twitter?

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