Twitter and Jaiku: Huh?
Can someone convince me that Twitter and Jaiku aren’t stupid? Unless I’ve missed something, the idea is to mini-blog what you’re currently doing in order that your friends can keep up with you. When you stop doing what you’re doing, presumably, you then mini-blog that.
Really?
Maybe I’m getting old, but I can’t even keep up with my gChat (or whatever it’s called) tagline anymore. It still says I’m “writing in a hotel room,” I think, and that was weeks ago. (Now I’m writing in my spare room, although I’m damn well not going to update this if I get up in the next hour and go to the grocery store.)
Are people really doing this Twitter crap? Is there a shortcut I’m not aware of?
I will say this — there’s a certain “I’m here” handiness to the way online chat, for instance, works for instantly finding people or getting a sense of whether or not their in front of their computers. I’m reminded of the time that I was evaluating a TMobile Sidekick for a few weeks, and how the fact that it had an “instant on” AIM client built in meant that I could literally look at the Sidekick and know (or be fairly certain) that people I work with at the JFP were *at their desks*. Why? Because their iChat account was active. I could then chat them something quickly, even if I was at a restaurant or waiting to get my haircut.
What’s more, chat along those lines is real-time, but it doesn’t require synchronous communication the way a phone call does, so it’s less obtrusive.
I imagine Twitter and company are going for something along those lines. But if you’re honestly supposed to sit there update your Twitter profile all the time, then well, that ain’t gonna happen.
And who wants people to know where they are at all times anyway? It’s kinda creepy. If you want to find me, just give me a call. Or see if I’m available on iChat.
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