Absolutely. There is tremendous potential for learning through online collaboration. Information is valuable. Twitter helps propagate a massive source of talent and real-time sources we can all access so easily and quickly (ubiquity much?). And yes there is a psychologically refreshing sense of ‘lounging about’ and sharing anecdotes with ‘friends’. But as with all sensible behavious, finding a balance between personal and professional interests must always be in check. At the end of the day, despite the Twittaholism, my curiosity over the medium itself is what beings me here. And what partly inprires me to be part of all this is to contribute to Twitter’s development.

Autom’s last blog post..TweetBrain – Crowdsourcing for the Twitterati

I agree. Just always gotta be careful what you say online

The best real world comparison I have to twitter is a university residence. Twitter, like residence in essence, is a place to house ideas help pass along simple focused information in a reality safe communal environment. In reality both become exactly what you make of them and are only as useful as you want them to me. The tricky thing with residence was finding the balance between work and pleasure. There was always someone else up and doing something far more interesting than what you were at the moment. You then constantly have to decide if it is time to do actual work or embark on an adventure.

Both are also extremely open caring communities that if you choose to engage in will full embrace and support you. On the other hand some people just choose to shut themselves in and not talk to anyone else and then come to the conclusion that both are bad.

It seems hardly surprising that in a culture that has created an extended adolescence and that proud chants the manta “30 is the new 20″ that we would want an extension of the communal residence experience online.

Chris Walts’s last blog post..chriswalts: @TristenPelton oh that’s because it just didn’t make any sense

I do use it as ‘the new water cooler’, though it strikes me that there is something very different in the public/private relationship that emerges when using Twitter to communicate and lounge about. Twitter, and similarly public social network environments, seriously challenges theoretical and policy analyses of ‘what is private’ and, in that light, in really interesting for me as a philosopher and political scientist.

I love Twitter as a social ‘water cooler’ as you put it. Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of businesses on it pimping their wares but aside from that I find the information exchange, chatting, and voyeurism is the perfect combination to keep me coming back for more!

Esseltes’s last blog post..Duncan, oh Duncan…

I’m definitely finding that out. For some reason, twitter has opened up my eyes wider and offered me a new way to socialize that I find exciting.

Betty’s last blog post..Biserka1: @hummingbird604 I think I’m an addict but here goesRT @VancouverView is running a GIVEAWAY WIN FREE online access to Vancouver View Magazine

Hey Raul,

I agree with Kimm – and I would add it’s almost more how you say it:

Twitter is great for sharing quick tid-bits of info, events (local and international), deals, questions…and so in a business sense it’s not a place to be obnoxiouly over zealous…as I have learned ..lol

I was recently at an event where Raul was speaking and he did a great job of explaining the dynamics of this “Twitter etiquette” — the efficacy of implicating these these insights was a 50% increase in followers (and not just random people, people within my interests network) and a 400% increase in direct mail communications!

And from all that I have established 3 face to face meetings and 10 persistent conversations…going online saves time and money and I can multi-task more effectively (watch TV, write an email, do a blog entry, answer the phone and eat a sandwich!! mmmm sandwich…

Thanks for the question Raul!

Andrew

Well Raul, I think I can count you in as one of my new “online” friends. Twitter is just the latest medium for that, and one that works particularly well in real time.

I’ve been using online methods of connecting socially outside my immediate community since 1995. First it was bulletin boards, then email listserves, then blogs and IM, then Facebook (though for me, Facebook has always been more “real life – no matter how distant the past connection” than it has people I’ve never met). Sure, the whole social media thing has exploded onto the radar of the mainstream media in the past 6 months. But that doesn’t make what is taking place on Twitter a new thing – it’s just the most effective thing going at the moment. I see it as the 21st century equivalent of pen pals – only so much faster and more energetic.

I’m a 45-year-old mom of three teenage boys. Many of my posts and emails have been while typing one-handed with a kid on my lap. If the sociologists want a target group to focus on, they’d do well to look at the social media habits of moms with children at home. They seem to do particularly well with this technology, as it eases the isolation so many feel.

Glad you are blogging about this!

I think of Twitter as a huge public space, like a public park or convention centre; there are too many conversations going on at once for anyone to keep up, so it’s perfectly normal for you to convo-surf and jump in wherever you feel like it. I definitely hang out on Twitter, and use it as my most direct Online way to get activities to do Offline. If I’m stuck and bored, I’ll hop on Twitter and ask if there are any tweetups going on, and somebody will tell me about something or we’ll organize one on the spot.

raincoaster’s last blog post..OLD PUBLISHERS HAVE NEW THINK COMING

absolutely, as a work at home mom, my main channel of interaction is through the internet. and as sad at sounds, a tool such as twitter allows me to engage with an infinite number of people on any topic i can dream up.

it’s like an enormous, glorious cocktail party, but you’re no longer bound by location, time, what you look like, or the fact that you may have a child hanging off of you.

you are simply judged on what you choose to share using only 140 characters.

beautiful.

sarah’s last blog post..trust your gut

For me, Twitter, and it’s predecessors, have been largely about being able to keep in contact with friends I’ve met in the mommy blog world. Only since Twitter, have I been exposed to people who don’t blog or are outside of my usual niche.

Of course, I do consider it a meeting space – my participation in ‘Twitter Parties’ and like occasions is evidence of it – but mostly, it’s the ability to give and receive feedback, news and just generally attention to others in real time that makes Twitter a ‘place’ I’ve congregated toward (as well as told other people to join).

It actually might be the one form of socmed that I might consider semi-permanent, whereas the others (Plurk, Facebook, Cre8buzz, MySpace), I’ve quickly moved on from.

Zoeyjane’s last blog post..On Opposite Awards

Hello, Michele NetChick sent me.

I love that not only can I keep a running chat with all the mom bloggers I know and keep meeting, but people from OTHER walks of life too.

I love that Twitter has helped me connect with local webby folks…to see what a crazy community is in town!

I use twitter to see chat with mommy bloggers, read about others outside my sphere and to drop in and out of what’s “hot” at the moment: an issue, a person, a video clip, etc.

I am having a love/hate with Twitter right now. Sucks up way too much time.

I do like the idea of the “virtual water cooler”. I consider some of my use of Twitter to be in that vein.

However, I find Twitter primarily useful for me as a medium in which I can interact with technologists that I might not usually have access to. A great example (in my world) is Joel Oleson. Joel is one of the foremost experts in the field when it comes to a particular technology that I support. In the “normal” world, I would never have a chance to interact with Joel (besides maybe a quick “hello” after a session at a conference). But via Twitter, I am able to communicate with him and get insight into his thoughts and garner feedback on things I am thinking about. It’s quite fascinating and very useful for me.

Besides the highbrow “connections”, of course, Twitter is still useful to me to keep up socially with people I know professionally, personally, and virtually. Although I recently had a friend unfollow me because my Twitter was “not personal enough”. Nutty.

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