Twitter, being cool and a great video

If you haven’t already heard about Twitter, the microblogging tool, it is never too late. I’ve been focusing on it as a tool for collaboration, learning and social presence.

With a lot of self-effacing charm, James Clay brings us this delightful video: Are you on Twitter?. I’m not sure this will increase your comprehension of the tool if you are new, but if you are already on, you’ll probably appreciate the humor. But it brings up the issue of adopting a new technology because it is “cool.” Take a look at the video, then I’ll continue below…

There are early adopters who will try anything. The second wave come from people who learn about a tool from a friend who has recommended it or hear about it and sense it is the new cool thing. There is temptation to try because of the coolness factor. That can be a pro or a con. It can tip us off to something useful. Or it can lead to “yet another thing to attend to.”

How do YOU tell the difference?

5 thoughts on “Twitter, being cool and a great video”

  1. Very amusing clip, at least for those of us using Twitter or similar tools. Otherwise one might view it thinking “say whaaaaat?” 😉

    I am an example of 2nd wave (having learned about Twitter in the first KS workshop and then taking my own time before deciding to actually give it a try). I think it’s OK to try it just because it seems cool … this does create some “white noise” in the tweets I get but sooner or later everyone seems to find their own space for Twitter and settle in, or moves on leaving an inactive profile behind. Of those who stick with it, some are incredibly active tweeters continually releasing information, some users create tremendous ambient awareness, and some – like me – tend to use it for specific tasks like tweeting events or queries.

    Where do we draw the line with the tools we are using? I’m headed towards the point where there are “enough” apps on my computer and my iPhone … now I want to find “better”, not “more”! 🙂

  2. Hi Nancy — love the video, made me laugh at myself and all of us Twits who have found real connections and a place of social learning there. I’m not sure I know how to tell the difference btw useful and just another thing – at least not beforehand. I usually make some sort of intuitive decision about whether to try a tool or not (in part dependent on time available to try it out) and I have this confidence that if i miss something worthwhile the first time around, it will find its way back to me later as more colleagues let me in on their experience.

    I think Gary Woodill at Workplace Learning Today is right “it is a phenomenon that requires you to do it to get it”. At least that was my experience.

    One thing that appeals to me is the ability to share with others some of the things I find as I listen to the web and so excited when others do the same. Sometimes its research articles, other times its asking for help with a question and sometimes in need of a good laugh. The new iPhone makes it so easy to take Twitter with me using Twitterific. I’d probably give up email now before I’d give up Twitter.

  3. Hi Nancy,

    I had heard about Twitter back in April 2007 from Stowe Boyd at the Web2.0 Expo in SF. I hadn’t used it until we met in Bowling Green this year April. Even then, for the last 6 months, you were the oly person I followed (and I didn’t really start to twitter).

    Interesting to see though that suddenly Twitter is taking off here in Europe, steadily. I started to use it more frequently.

    I believe the real value of Twitter is yet to be discovered for various purposes (well, Barack Obama showed us one purpose!). I will start usingit for documentation of conferences.

    I don’t think it is the final technology for its purpose and I hope it will develop further. I agre there is too much white noise; and I am not happy with the #tags. But for the time being…

    Holger from http://www.change-management-blog.com

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