This link has been bookmarked by 3 people . It was first bookmarked on 24 Oct 2009, by Diane Quirk.
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Howard Rheingold"If all you knew about Twitter was what you heard in the media, you might think it was populated only by chattering celebrities. While intellectually barren corners of Twitter may exist, for us, Twitter is a powerful personal research tool, populated by carefully selected individuals whom we have chosen to 'follow' for their knowledge and insight. Twitter (twitter.com) is a free online service that allows users to post short messages ('tweets') of up to 140 characters describing their current status, and allows them to 'follow' the updates of other selected users. Unlike a Google search, which will only suggest links related to the terms searched, a question posted via Twitter usually yields a range of replies, from shortened URLs containing answers to the question to more intelligent responses. For example, when Professor Martin Weller asked on Twitter "What are the key components of a viral idea?", he received a wide range of replies (summarized here: tinyurl.com/kkqfs6). Similarly, a tweeted remark I made during a seminar on creativity turned into an online discussion on the subject (summarized in this video: vimeo.com/1362359). These examples are hardly characteristic of trivial thought processes, yet when we try to persuade colleagues of the value of building a personal network via Twitter, the most common response is, 'Why do I want to know what someone else had for breakfast?'.
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