I have to admit to being a bit sniffy about Twitter. I took a look at the public area of their website (see image) a while ago and was a bit put off. Then I realised I was falling into the trap that so many people fell into when they dismissed blogs on the basis of who they perceived were using them and what they were using them for.
I remind myself. It's not about content its about the underlying functionality and the network of people using it, or potentially using it. Anyone can use twitter (or any other technology) for whatever content they like. Contrast twitter's public feed with the view I get of twitter: Interesting mini observations and calls for help from trusted friends, a feed from the BBC on technology and the rural news from xPRESS Digest.
So twitter, like everything else, is what you make it. The real question is: "Is the network of Twitter users relevant to ruralnet? Are there people using Twitter that would appreciate ruralnet|online services delivered to them in this way?"
To try and find out and as part of an experiment, I have set up a Twitter account called 'ruralnet_xpress' and each day I am pasting the day's rural headlines to it. So far ruralnet_xpress has two followers me and Paul Webster - cheers Paul! If you're a Twitter user and would like a daily dose of rural headlines, you know what to do.
ruralnet|online feed
Like a lot of people in the
Like a lot of people in the network of UK Social Networkers I took a while to get into Twitter. However through the persistence of dear Littlelaura (that's her twitter name) I am now hooked!
I will continue to follow your tweets ... and Paul Henderson's who I noticed has joined up as well
I too was a reluctant
I too was a reluctant Twitterer but thanks to Laura I have come to the dark side - it's not really about supplying content, although it is nice to get hints at what the Beeb is about to report. It's more about thoughts, rants, mini-blogs with a very low impact on your time to write - hell you've only got 140 characters, how long does that take? It also reaches the people you want to Twitter at as well as wider idea bouncing. Finally, it's also very social, great for remote workers or people working from home, who don't get the banter from working in the office. My office is now the internet although I'm looking forward to my colleague Dunk's twittering once he gets going - it will be worth following I think.
I thought it was the dumbest
I thought it was the dumbest thing ever when I first tried it back in Oct. 06, but I slowly found value to it.
THanks for posting your reflections here.