Presence, mobility and micro-blogging.

As part of my second reflection paper I’d like to take a look at Twitter, a social network of sorts, that deals directly with micro-blogging. At first, I’ll admit that I wasn’t too excited about the idea behind Twitter. I was already using my other devices and technologies in sort of the same way, long before Twitter came along.

First let me begin with the T-Mobile Sidekick. If you’re not familiar with the device, then let me explain it to you in a few sentences. It’s an amazing mobile phone that really proved to be a valuable asset to me until the iPhone came along. It was the first mobile device that I had used with a completely functional web browser, built in instant messaging (IM) client, SMS, and phone calling all in one easy to use package. I italicized instant messaging client for a reason, and here’s why: in the same way that Twitter uses it’s link to mobile phones as a primary way of updating your Twitter micro-blog, I used my instant messenger client on my Sidekick to keep all of my friends updated with what I was doing (specifically through the “Away Message”). Here is an example of how it works:

I’m going out to the movies with my friend Kat, so on my Sidekick, with it’s always on internet connection, I type in my away message “Trying to catch the last showing for Juno” into the IM client. A couple hours later, the movie ends and we’re just utterly surprised by how great the movie was so I update my away message to say “JUNO WAS A GREAT MOVIE” and leave it up. Now with my away message set, friends of mine on the AOL Instant Messenger network can see if I’m available to chat or not along with the corresponding away message. Albert, a friend that has me on his buddy list sees that I’ve updated my away message and sends me a message asking me more about the movie.

Now, when I look at how I used my Sidekick 5 years ago, this is exactly how most people are using Twitter to this day. Twitter even asks you this simple question just above their entry box “What are you doing?”, and you have to answer in 140 characters or less. The amazing thing about Twitter was their ability to take the idea of updating your Twitter to multiple platforms. You can update your Twitter through the website itself, your IM client, or your mobile phone. Their ability to make twitter updating ubiquitous makes it very appealing.

Now some people are actually not using twitter to just say what they’re doing, but rather to report on something. This is a powerful use of the technology, because we hear about the news, when it happens, where it happens. Not only does it give the consumer a choice, the news is delivered in a more direct, succinct manner. So whether you’re following your choice for this year’s presidential race, or your friend’s uninspiring day at work, it’s amazing how far a small piece of information can go.

The downside to most people new to Twitter is that, almost none of their friends or people they are interested in use the website. So it should also be noted that in the same vein as Twitter, the Facebook profile status feature is similar in use. Facebook can be accessed on any mobile device as long as they have internet access, and with some phones, there are even specific applications or pages they can access. Actually, as Cory mentioned during class last week, Twitter has designed a specific Facebook application that will link your Twitter updates to your Facebook status, syncing the two. So because I see the link between the two, I promise I’ll update my Twitter more often.