Twitter, Tweet, iPhones and the interconnectedness of things

Twitter- this is an application that can be used on mobile phones, laptops, desktops, pretty much anything that can somehow connect, or at least send messages (eg: SMS) to the web.

It is a micro-blog, if you like. A 140 character maximum write up. It can be likened in a way to the status on Facebook or such like, but much more to it – or less, depending on what you use it for.

Where as a Blog is the type of beast that you would update now and then, once something interesting or noteworthy has occurred, a tweet is more of an “instant report” of what you are doing, feeling, wanting at that moment in time. Probably better to call it an “instance report” as it generally refers to the present thing you are doing.

To get a better idea, take a look at the left hand blog column and see my Twitter readouts. Mini bits of me.

As you can see from this posts picture, I can follow other peoples twitterings – or Tweets as they are actually called. People can also chose to follow mine – but it takes all sorts!

I discovered it mainly through Stephen Fry via his website and podgrams. I also heard it mentioned in passing by the scholarly Jon Kane… So twice mentioned it deserved investigation!

I’m quite impressed by the way it works, and how totally integrated it can be. That is part of the purpose of this blog entry – to see if/and or how twitterfeed.com deals with taking information from this very blog and turns it into a 140 character tweet..which in turn will feed Twitter and update my Facebook status…and in a round about fashion, turn up back at this blog in left hand column!

In the same vain of this thread I actually selected to follow Stephen Fry’s tweets, as I think the chap is fantastic. True, he is known as a wit and comic, but I like him so much more for his normality and angst that he demonstrates in his podgrams. Out of all the people that I have ever wished to chat with over a drink, he is one of the few that are within a time zone where that would be possible… That is to say, the others are mostly long gone historical figures.

This brings me to a warming surprise as I lay staring at the ceiling last night, listening to his latest podgram. I had sent a tweet to him, but as he is a busy man with a lot of fans, I didn’t expect a reply. After listening to his talk about his new and improved web site, along with his views on open source software etc, I checked my Twitted reader to find that he had selected to follow my tweets! Now I am sure he has a lot of tweet feeds that he follows, but still, it made me smile. At the same time I was listening to him on my iPhone, he was clicking on my tweet feed. Well, I thought it was a strange yet amusing thing!

If you drop in here Stephen (if I may be as bold to use your first name), then I hope you find it to your liking – but more so, I hope you find on your current trip, that “The last chance to see…” wasn’t quite the last chance, and things have improved. I truly hope that is the case.

Stephen Fry and his various web projects, can be found at his web space http://stephenfry.com.