I am a huge fan of Leo Laporte and his TWIT podcasts. Yeah, I'm a tech geek girl, and one of my long term plans has been to put together a tech blog with alot of contributers. I set that one up a long time ago, but so far haven't had the time to get it going.
Meantime, I've grown the tendency to listen to these things more than I normally would, because Air America Radio has gotten so screwed up as to be...well, alot of it is unlistenable, and the truly talented, revolutionary, and interesting shows have been cut back and cut off.
Its not often that I stop the car while running around and write things down to check out later, but I do that often with the Leo's shows and Ive found some pretty cool stuff that way. I used to do that while listening to Morning Sedition when they would interview an
author or talk about an issue. They sold quite a few ipods that way via Marc Maron's slow adoption of technology and hilarious assimilation to the i-borg.

Well, in the spirit of working my way down the long list of things that I wanted to look into, I have been looking at this online social network called Twitter that Leo Laporte is all involved with. Leo loves it and its copy twins out there and has been on it for quite some time (though I cant seem to find him...thats just problem one.) I looked at it when it first began, and I used it a little, but it seemed sort of pointless and ive been so busy and caught up in the past couple of years that Im lucky to have time for my personal email much less an ongoing conversation with the internets and its denizens...beyond long form blogging,of course.

Recently Leo has been talking about it again and so, in a low moment when I was sinking beneath the family thanksgiving dysfunction, the early darkness, and the political swirl thats making my head hurt and not forming itself into a real post...yet...I went on and recalled my password and user name, which is apparently Melina Celeste because someone has Melina already.

I looked around and...I dunno...maybe its that I hardly have enough time to make it through what Ive selected for my Google reader, or that I prefer to do things in real life...often alone...but not needing to report my every move to the internets, but it seemed sort of silly.

So, yesterday I got some mail on my Treo that someone that I don't know was "following me" on Twitter. I guess that's what they do there, but it seems sort of creepy. Maybe if you have lots of friends online and on twitter who are hanging on your every movement, it is a good thing? I guess that Leo is thinking of using his Twitter time line to do a book. Could be interesting in that he travels so much and does so many interesting things. But, what civilian has time for this? I was thinking that this is probably going to be the next big thing for reaching America's youth. Doesn't it just smack of what bored college students do during class?

After a couple more emails about some men following me, I went on last night and I figured that maybe I should try to find something to use the thing for before I give up on it, so I searched for John Edwards. Sure enough he is there, or someone pretending to be him. I added him as my only friend, and was about to look for Elvis Costello or The Replacements, when something happened here and I signed off.

This morning, when I opened my email I had around 20 more people following me.
Now, knowing that my ONLY friend (in the world, at this point,) is John Edwards, he is, of course, following me, but the ones who came next were just so interesting:
First came Bill Richardson, then Ron Paul from last evening...hmmm...then some other personal emails...then all in a row beginning at midnight: Joe Biden, Mike Gravel (with video footage of his debate with himself, among other things,) Dennis Kucinich, followed quickly by Sam Brownback, and Rudy Giuilani, of all people! Then came Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Duncan Hunter, Mitt Romney, and Tommy Thompson. Bringing up the rear was Hillary Clinton! I cant tell if these are entities that are sanctioned by the campaigns or what...but it would be a good way to combat swiftboating smears (more on that later in the supposed post that is forming in my jumbled mind.)

Some time around daybreak, Barak Obama got on my tail, followed by Johnny just checking in, and then Chris Dodd and Tom Tancredo. Finally, much later, Fred Thompson Sauntered into the line....and then it stopped.

Maybe they only come out at night, or maybe I have to go onto Twitter and tell them all something to get more attention (like to go away!) But if I follow the links that they provide they tend to go to alot of input from other entities that support the person, and its unclear to me yet how the thing works exactly.

Here's the thing: This technology was originally aimed at texting on cellphones. We know that texting is very important, not just so that our kids can endlessly chat with their friends without using up all the cell minutes, but also because texting is the security system that works best in reaching large groups of young folks, like entire college campus' that have a mad shooter on the loose. Part of the reason that I have encouraged it in the 13 year old boys here is that half the time we don't have a cell signal, and so we text to be sure to reach one another.

There is nothing worse than unsolicited texts or the idea of wireless companies allowing anything of the sort, but on Twitter and its ilk, (with Twitter currently being the biggest,) you have a potentially large audience that is asking for a quick sentence about what's going on from those they care to hear from, and a huge group of what must be kids, (and Leo, of course,) telling you what they are currently doing.

The marketing potential of something like that could be fantastic, as the stumbling candidates are sorta slowly learning. But I actually think that it could be more useful as a tool by someone who could create or BE a persona that kids WANT to hear from, who can impart fun and important information to them. Like if Bon Jovi or Springsteen,or whoever is hot these days would do one for a candidate, for instance. It could also be a good way to cut through some of the main stream media crap that is being fed to us all.

The problem that I see out there now is that each message from a candidate or those pretending to be them, just sends you to a web page or a YouTube type service. I know that the personal items are just sentences, and I think that must be a much more functional way to use the service. Twitter takes URL's and automatically turns them into TinyUrl's and sends them as links, which is good if you're sitting at your computer, and if you want to follow another link...but if you're in line somewhere or in class, or at a boring performance...the sentence thing seems like it could be used in a way that wouldn't involve alot of getting your phone onto the internet slowly to look at something. I have broadband service on my Treo and I still avoid going on the Internet unless I know what I'm gonna be looking at.

I wonder how much good information can be sent out to a large group in a sentence or 140 characters? Or if announcements or puzzle pieces could be sent in a way that would make people a part of something different than the usual web site thing.

I think I'm gonna look into Twitter and see what it really can do, if it crosses language barriers, and how large of a following someone can have. Its an interesting idea to use cell phones and single sentences to communicate with large groups if people, at a rally or gathering...or even just waiting in line bored somewhere.

So, if you re on Twitter, follow Melina Celeste. You'll be in good company, as I seem to attract politicians of all stripes, or their doppelgangers....Hey, maybe its fun!...probably not, but it could be something to do and maybe more....

c/p RIPCoco

Labels: technology