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24 hours into Twitter
As I mentioned in my last post, I finally decided to try out Twitter to see what the fuss was about.
So far, here’s what I like about it:
- IM, SMS, and web integration are all great. Wherever I am, I can just dash something off really quick
- The dead simple nature of the service is refreshing
- Compared to blogging, this requires a lot less thought
In particular, I think Twitter delivers on a core premise really well, which is:
Pierce the social veil and get to KNOW someone
What I mean by this is that when you first meet people, particularly in a business context, it’s often really hard to get to know them personally. But when you are reading twitters about them feeling hungry or thinking of random aspirations or falling asleep or whatever, all of these private things suddenly become public. I find that it really humanizes people. Weird 
What’s missing from Twitter?
I find that while strangely appealing, Twitter still seems to lack some basic functionality.
The main thing is a feedback mechanism for when you do stuff. I sort of expect there to be a action->feedback loop that doesn’t really exist. When I write a twitter, I feel like I’m sending a message off into the middle of nowhere, and who knows if something comes back.
It feels wrong to say something natural like, “What are you guys up to??” Instead, the “right” twitter seems to be a random stream of consciousness.
It would be interesting to get random prompts for information from the service. So, it should ask, “What are you looking at right now?” or whatever.
I’d also enjoy richer functionality than sending “away messages” all day. Maybe something to set me up with interesting people, or ways for me to interact with my friends that are differentiated from a quick text message (like poking, for example).
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. I signed up to use it as a way to update my thoughts at SXSW. Since then, I’ve haven’t much wanted to use it.
Like most social applications, sharing it with your friends is what makes it fun. Yet, I quickly turned off notifications because it just got overwhelming. I receive text messages directly from friends to coordinate, I get messages from servers updating me about issues. These are each important. When you toss in getting messages that might not be important, I found myself reaching for the phone a lot less.
Yet, I agree that receiving notifications is where it’s at. And your ideas to increase communication and make it a better-rounded service are great, but they’ll also increase notifications.
AdamD
4 Apr 07 at 10:35 am
When I was running a small consultancy in the mid 90s we used a custom wiki-like intranet with some semantic web and social features to collaborate. One of those features was a few shared status lines that appeared above your page after every page refresh. This was used to indicate updated pages and pending events but was also available for twitter-like updates. Some of those features would be quite useful in twitter too.
As we all had video cameras on our desks also there was a link to that which could be included or excluded at the status poster’s choice: if someone wanted something they had in front of their camera to be seen by others, they’d say so and wait. Two people clicking on the same event would be sent to a videoconference with each other (easy since we controlled the boot image on everyone’s home computer, we could invoke very sophisticated software with very simple URLs) or to a common video feed for a briefing. Not all of this stuff worked smoothly, it was R&D. Once someone left their sound off and a person who’d clicked in to what was supposed to be a videoconference ended up watching someone else in their underwear walking around – for half an hour – not counting the five or so minutes she spent making popcorn to munch while she watched him. Very funny.
The way people report their feelings, interests, events and so on could be very much richer, but perhaps at the cost of rigorizing the way they express themselves. If the spam problem can be solved very decisively then links could be more openly exchanged to communications venues etc..
But if the point is to keep voyeuring in on others’ inner state, then, maybe these “practical” features just distract from the main attraction, which is that stream of conciousness.
Craig Hubley
12 Apr 07 at 6:51 pm