Twitter Versus the Earthquake

I don't use Twitter, I don't write to it, I don't read from it. I do read about Twitter and am enjoying the mix of confused questioning and breathless gushing. Odd Time Signatures has a nice post on the topic, the most pertinent quote being:

Every time I see someone tittering about Twitter I have to do a reality check. What is it about this thing that has so many otherwise intelligent folks all googly-eyed? If I didn’t know better, I’d think there was a geek-wide conspiracy to make us like this stupid, timewasting, useless black hole of an application whether we want to or not.

But there is this meme going around: If there were to be an earthquake, Twitter could be used to communicate:

Living in earthquake country, it could indeed be a way to connect with others out of the area in the event of a disaster or emergency in a broadcast fashion, rather than one-on-one text messaging. I have, therefore, joined Twitter (username: Karoli) and if I can figure out how to add friends, he’ll be first.

This seems to me to be a desperate attempt to find a real application. Firstly, for an emergency communication device, it relies on a whole lot of intermediate steps (for point to point communication, you would need 2 computers, 2 ISPs + wire infrastructure, electricity,...). Secondly, this event is so infrequent that it can't really be used to justify the huge uptick in Twitter users - are all those conversations just there to tread water before the big shake down?

I've just had a look at the stream of messages on the front page of Twitter and couldn't find anything of interest - 'having breakfast' may be the most interesting statement on there.

The current issue of Wired has a focus on our snack culture. When the time taken to report some micro-event approaches the time taken to perform that thought or action, doesn't that tell us we could be more productive.

I see a time in the future when twitter will look like this:

• user1: woke up
• user1: just wrote 'woke up' on twitter
• user1: just wrote 'just wrote 'woke up' on twitter' on twitter
• ...

Please note that while I'm poking at Twitter here, I do see great potential for mining this data and providing summary, aggregate analytics over the statements in the twittersphere.

Comments

[Nathan Gilliatt]

Reminds me of the fellow with the obsessively detailed diary...

[Google moment]

Ah, here we are:

Robert Shields, World's Longest Diary
http://www.soundportraits.org/on-air/worlds_longest_diary/transcript.php3

I heard this when it aired and was struck by the pointlessness of it when he read the entry that reads, "12:25 to 12:30: I discharged urine."

Some details were never meant to be read.

[Gary Bernhardt]

You can change your twitter status via text messages, which makes it slightly more useful in the event of a natural disaster (but I still agree that it's a huge stretch.)

[Stephen Davies]

"Please note that while I'm poking at Twitter here, I do see great potential for mining this data and providing summary, aggregate analytics over the statements in the twittersphere."

Hehe!

I wrote this yesterday:

http://www.prblogger.com/2007/03/twitter-i-dont-get-it/

[norman zyland]

Thank you for helping cross another time-wasting web site off my list. Only 999 more and I will get my life back

[Steve Dembo]

I've learned a ton about people I've known online for years through their Twitter. Through their blogs and IM, we only talk about what we know we have in common (education and Tech). Through Twitter, I've learned about their kids, their jobs, their TV show preferences and their lives. Informational, interesting and for lack of a better word... just plain fun :)

Definitely not important. But it helps keep me sane!

[rchk]

I was a bit unsure of what twitter could be used for to start with, until i realized that it's the perfect web replacement for those "/me"-commands on IRC. Back in the days when I used to hang out on IRC all day long, such commands gave me hints of what my friends were up to, and gave me explanations to why they, seemingly, didn't want to answer my chats ("/me is watching pr0n").

I've seen lots of youngsters use and change their display name on MSN for this purpose (".-^[aNGRy]^-."], but nowadays there's even a specific field in the MSN client (and many others) for this kind of status messages. Also, for example 30boxes.com gives you the possibility to add RSS feeds to your profile, which makes it even more usable: http://30boxes.com/user/103516/

We will definitely see more of this kind of mash-ups in the future.. sites made up of feeds from different sources, combined into one.

[Pat]

You're awful eager to discount this application, and to assume that there are no practical applications.

Why?

[Matthew Hurst]

Pat,

I'd like to address your question.

Firstly, it is important to separate out the notion of a successful application in the business sense and a practical application in the sense of contribution to our common good. For example, Wal-Mart is very successful, but I'm not a huge fan of its principles and policies; Britney Spears is successful, but I don't see her enduring like the Beatles did.

Secondly, when it comes to human nature and human behaviour, one can fill a huge need, or find a great opportunity in the current trend of fragmented life-styles, attention deficit cognitive expectations and so on, but that doesn't mean it is something I find of great human value.

The Disney corporation is currently developing micro content based on their major iconinc properties. These are short - very short- animated pieces that, they tell us, have a full story in them. They last for about 40 seconds and are aimed at gray bar time for tweens.

I recall Steve Rubel writing about how podcasts were so great because you could listen to something while waiting in the queue for the auto teller.

All of these things can be hugely successful and fill a need - or work off a human weakness and our escalating attention deficit. That doesn't mean that we have to like them simply because of their success.

Now, having said that, there have been some responses here and on other blogs that have outlined some interesting applications of this type of communication. The most salient to me has been the notion of twitter as a sort of asynchronous form of IM.

You ask 'why [are you so eager to discount twitter]?' This sounds like you believe my agenda is to hack at it. That is not the case. I am, however, a sketptic of this granularity of communication; in addition I am leary of the progressively smaller and smaller chunks of time that western society expects minds to concentrate for.

Time will tell, and it will be interesting to see if the evangelists, like Scoble, keep up their rate of communication in this channel.

[Natalie Glance]

Given your appraisal of Twitter, I think you'll really enjoy this post, which is perhaps even more anti-Twitter:
http://prblog.typepad.com/strategic_public_relation/2007/03/twitter_hater.html

I think of Twitter as an easier way to share IM status messages (like your "on the beach with Wakako"). And, at the very least, a fascinating social experiment.

[Berliner]

Dingsbums!!! http://www.myvideo.de/watch/1734930