I twittered a URL this morning with its lineage (Rubel to Brantley to Dempsey to me), a post on the shrinking granularity of media and how we ignore these changes at our peril. Its a fascinating essay on a topic that seems to be an important part of the cultural divide between youthful remixers and (generally) older, more passive media consumers. There are many quotables in the piece, but to choose one:
*Connect people.* The web is transforming into a medium where the greatest value is created when people connect via platforms of participation around a common goal -- to make money, be entertained or informed, to create, etc.
Status messages of the various Instant Messaging clients are ways our youthful mentors stay connected online. A year ago, Twitter came on the social networking software scene... nothing BUT a status message. Talk about small granularity... can this possibly be useful? I signed up last January or so, but didn't do much with it until I got a Facebook account, and still felt vaguely silly about reporting on my activities of the moment in a largely haphazard manner. When I succumbed to iPhone lust, my Twittering increased somewhat, fueled by the simple enjoyment of watching what my small collection of followees were up to (and the fact that the Twitter folks have one of the best mobile user interfaces around).
From time to time, one encounters quite pithy pointers in the digital breadcrumbs of microblogging (as this ultralight social networking idiom is called). Soon after I read the Rubel post, I encountered Paul Jones' twitter to Good Copy, Bad Copy, a documentary of really engaging interviews on the topic of copyright in my Twitter feed... must viewing for anyone even tangentially interested in the topic (and how can we not be?). So, for me, Twittering actually added value to my day professionally, and I'm not feeling so silly after all. Thanks to Paul Jones, who has become a favorite (and substantive) Twitterer.
Follow my twittering at http://twitter.com/stuartweibel (yikes, I'm STILL embarrassed to say such a thing!).
-----
The Empire State Building taken from the Rockefeller Center observation deck (2006)
