Chocolatespoon: Emily’s Musings

Since I’ve been asked a couple of times now about how (and implicit in that, why) I use Twitter, I thought I’d write up a response here (since I couldn’t manage to do it in 140 characters or less.) First, I’ll admit I don’t use it all that much compared to many people I know, but I enjoy it and am intrigued by it.

I guess I use it in a couple of different ways:

1) I occasionally (but not regularly) post updates there (and then have those mirrored on my facebook account and listed here on the front page of my blog). These are generally little thoughts that I don’t mind be very public (since they become part of the public Twitter timeline that other people can stumble upon when searching). Sometimes I’ll post a status update on Facebook that I don’t feel needs to go out on Twitter (since on Facebook, the audience of people reading them is more known). Sometimes I use it to promote something (I liked putting Puzzle Day updates there in case anyone was looking for puzzle information and might find it). Sometimes I like to be a part of the discussion (like when we had the small earthquake here and one of the first things I did was to tweet about feeling it and to check what everyone else was saying.) Sometimes I just want specific people to know that my flight has arrived. Sometimes I want to thank someone for particularly good customer service (and to test whether the company is monitoring mentions of their brand name, since I’m curious about how companies are using the new tool.) I don’t claim to be someone anyone else would want to follow (except maybe my Mom, who signed up to follow me today) and don’t really try to keep an on-going public appearance there at this point.

2) I follow different people and entities — some that I know and am actually interested in the day-to-day life updates they post about, some that are famous or respected thought leaders on different topics and I’m interested in seeing what they post, some that reliably post pointers to interesting articles and information about subjects I am interested in, some that are amusing and fun to get updates from. I follow some for work-related topics, some for parenting topics, some because they talk about local things and I’d want to know if something interesting was going on right here, others because they once posted something interesting and I followed them to see what else they might share. Sometimes I follow them because people I know follow them and I want to know what they are tracking too. When I have a few extra minutes first thing in the morning or over lunch, I sometimes pop in and read whatever the current set of tweets is. I don’t worry about missing out on what had been said since I last checked in (though sometimes I’ll click on a particular person and catch up on their whole day of tweets). If I’m out and about, stuck in a waiting room or an airport or just killing time somewhere, I’ll check on my iPhone. It’s like tuning into a bunch of interesting conversations. I’ve played with various desktop AIR-based applications to monitor tweets, but am too easily distracted to leave those up and running too much of the time for just general awareness tracking. I’ve found really great articles, heard about breaking news, found fun web sites to check out, and seen lots of funny cat photos from following the links people post. I’ve donated money to people’s causes, given them feedback on items they posted for reviews, and tried to answer questions (the reference librarian in me often can’t resist a public shout-out for information).

3) I sometimes look to see what people are saying about something particular. This is great if you’re at a conference (or wish you were at a conference but didn’t get to travel to it) and follow the #hashtags for a particular event or topic. During election season it was fun to read the tweets during the debates (people gave great color commentary) — sometimes I read just what the people I follow were saying (my brother and sister-in-law gave some of the best line-by-line reactions) and sometimes I followed the general open discussion to see what everyone was reacting to. I tried to follow along what was happening at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament by following anyone I could find who was tweeting live from there (yes, I’m a geek). When the earthquake happened, I spent a lot of time reading about what people were tweeting about it, how it felt to them, what the official estimates of it were as they came in, etc. Sometimes I check what people are saying about the company I work for or something I’m interested in. Some of the AIR applications like TweetDeck are great for this because I can easily have some different searches and lists going at the same time in different pods and monitor lots of things at the same time. Usually I just use Twitter’s search. When I was having trouble with gmail a few weeks ago, I checked on Twitter to see if other people were complaining about the same thing or if it was just me (there were lots of other complaints.)

Clearly this isn’t how everyone uses Twitter or even what it may be best at, but I usually don’t have things that I need to widely promote, I don’t have a particular area of interest or expertise that I’m monitoring and sharing information about on a regular basis, and I’m not trying to generate a following like that. I like trying out new technologies and have been intrigued by who follows my account (fun when it is people I know, less interesting when it is just someone clearly trying to sell me something.) Mostly, I use it to listen in on people who do have lots of interesting things to say and who are out there finding really great things and sharing them.

So that’s my random babble (way more than 140 characters) in answer to a question asked to me in a nice succinct tweet. 🙂

Karen linked to a fun site that does a Myers-Briggs analysis of a blog.  Mine comes out as ESTP (though when I’ve taken Myers-Briggs I’m usually an ENTJ or ENFJ)

ESTP – The Doers

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

My phone today decide to stop responding — the other functions on the phone worked, but not the actual phone feature (so I could actually dial out by calling from the SMS screen, but not press any of the buttons on the phone screen to dial or answer incoming calls). Huh. So I googled the problem (of course) and the first hit was a great suggestion on an online user forum with a solution that worked (even though it didn’t work for the person asking the question…)

For my own future reference, holding down the home and sleep/wake buttons until it gave the option to power off seemed to do the trick!

Today’s the fourth birthday of my blog, which I started back on August 29, 2003. I love being able to look back on the old entries and see what I was up to! And of course, lots more changes are coming in my life soon…

For me, one of the main benefits of having a blog is that it serves as an external memory bank.  I’ve never been particularly good with dates and names and its so nice to get to go back in and search for things to find out when they happened or who I saw what movie with, etc.

Just now I was interviewed for a magazine in my hometown about online dating (how nice to be considered a success story in something!) and had to go in and do searches on my own blog to remember the chronology of my life (which was a bit embarrassing to have to look up, but really nice to know the answers I was looking for were there).

One of the assignments that I subjected my students to was to create a blog post from a fun meme. I thought I’d play along with this one — and found that I am even nerdier in more ways than I had thought.

Thanks feklhr for finding this one.

Lisa pointed out that this month’s “Virtual Chautauqua” is on a cool topic that may interest somc of you. Definitely check it out!

http://www.virtualchautauqua.com/

(if this is your first time in Chautuauqa, you can create your own ID and
Password and c’mon in – it’s free!)

June 2007 Chautauqua
June 15-30, 2007: Howard Greenfield on IPTV and Internet Video: Expanding
the Reach of Television Broadcasting

IPTV and Internet Video clearly explains and demystifies the functions,
markets, and future impact of this exploding technology. This book contains
an overview of hardware, software, and Internet technologies, case studies,
and covers a range of products and services. It is a guide to help leaders
master the key trends and drivers transforming the world of broadcast
television and the Web. Each piece of the puzzle is discussed in detail,
from head ends, Web portals and VOD servers through advanced IP networks,
DSLAMs and xDSL lines to viewers’ set-top boxes and multimedia PCs. You’ll
get a working knowledge of IPTV, enabling both non-technical and technical
professionals to accurately analyze the emerging technology and business
opportunities. Written by two leading digital media experts with, each with
25 years technology development experience and global insight, this book
also looks ahead to IPTV’s rapid deployment and future growth.

Yes, I know there are a few bugs in my conversion over to wordpress from movable type (including some weird displays in IE6 and Mac Safari — and probably in other browsers as well). I’ll work on that shortly. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for visiting anyway!!

I just learned that a paper I wrote with a great group of folks many years ago, Tools for Global Virtual Teams, is being reprinted as Chapter 3 of a new book, “Collaborating Virtually, Concepts & Applications”, edited by Kumuda Laxman Tripathy, published in 2007 by the ICFAI University Press. Cool!