Why I Love Twitter - O'Reilly Radar

29 Nov 09

Alex Ko

twitter social-networks human-based-computation

A lot of my job is, as we say, "redistributing the future" - following interesting people, and passing on what I learn to others. And twitter is an awesome tool for doing just that.
ideal for following the latest news, tracking the ideas and whereabouts of people who will shape the future of technology, and sharing my own thoughts
7 more annotations...
- If I'm interested in someone, I don't have to ask their permission to follow them. I don't have to ask if they will be my friend: that is something that evolves naturally over time.
- If you're a public figure like I am, the metaphor of mutual "friending" is truly broken. I get tens of thousands of friend requests from people I don't know. Accepting would make it impossible for me to use a social tool to keep in touch with my real friends. Friend groups don't really help
- Twitter's brilliant social architecture means that anyone can follow me, and I can follow anyone else (unless they want to keep their updates private.)
  Gradually, through repeated contact, we become friends.
  - Alex Ko on 2009-11-29
    
    This was also the original social architecture of StumbleUpon, but was not salient enough and was abandoned at some point in favor of more complex friend/subscriber model.
- Rather than loading itself down with features, it lets others extend its reach.
- The @syntax for referring to users, hashtags, and whatever you call the use of $ as a special symbol for reference to financial instruments, were all user-generated innovation
- The most fascinating evolution happening on Twitter isn't an evolution of the software, but an evolution in user behavior and in the types of data that are being shared.
  - Alex Ko on 2009-11-29
    
    and the evolution of the messages/memes being shared
- I became one of the most prolific retweeters, figuring that I have more followers than most of the people I know, and that it would be good form to pass on the best of what they post.

20 May 09

Yu-Hui Ching

twitter web2.0 socialnetworking Article tools o'reilly microblogging blog

18 May 09

James Schirmer

twitter social trends blog facebook web networking media

29 Mar 09

M Twentytwo

twitter o'reilly

04 Feb 09

jamie_daniel2

Good blog entry about what Twitter can do and how it fits in with Facebook, etc.

Twitter

03 Feb 09

Wayne Sutton

01 Feb 09

Keith Chapman

twitter web2.0 tools blog

12 Dec 08

Michelle Matias

twitter

07 Dec 08

John Mark

oreilly twitter

Jochen Lillich

"I thought I should outline here some of the specific things I find so compelling about Twitter, with suggestions about architectural features to be emulated by other internet services."

twitter communication

06 Dec 08

Antonio González

web2.0 microblogging twitter ventajas ingles tim_oreally

05 Dec 08

Miguel Ribeiro

twitter web2.0 socialnetworking Article o'reilly tools blog

04 Dec 08

Adriana Lukas

excellent analysis of twitter and its impact on social web

web2.0 tools internet twitter socialweb o'reilly socialgraph data delicious

03 Dec 08

Driessen Samuel

microblogging

02 Dec 08

Sandy Kennedy

Gabriela Grosseck

articol despe avantajele T

twitter socialnetworking

Courtney Bentley

web2.0 twitter tools tech fromDelicious

steve macluskie

twitter web2.0

Moultrie Creek

twitter socialnetworking

knobas last

It's the data, not the interface! Let other people use your data, build on it, and it will still belong to you. Hold it too tight, and they will compete with it.

01 Dec 08

Susan Bivona

twitter

Shirley Smith

twitter

Matt Lingard

Post by Tim O'Reilly

twitter networking blogs emergingTechnologies

Luis Soldevila

web2.0 socialnetworking twitter blog

Nelba Quintana

twitter #arcall #evo09mlit socialnetworking

Fran Hughes

If you care what I think, you know that Twitter is just about the best way to learn what I'm paying attention to.

socialnetworking twitter microblogging TimO'Reilly professional_learning

Laure Dessaux

twitter web2.0 socialnetworking

Martin Lindner

refelcts "what I'm paying attention to" ... "tidbits" that would otherwiese have been too quick/small for surfacing on the social radar: "all the things I could never find time to put on my blog, but that I spray via email like a firehose ... within O'Rei

twitter_star5 _twitter _overload sme20_app_star5 deli

Ricardo Moreno

timoreilly web2.0 twitter microblogging

Susan Burns

Grant Potter

twitter

30 Nov 08

Angela Rand

twitter

Chuck Brands

mael Le Hir

Twitter is simple. Twitter works like people do.Twitter cooperates well with others. Twitter transcends the web. Twitter is user-extensible.Twitter evolves quickly.

twitter OReilly

Yann Leroux

o'reilly twitter

Gail Braddock

twitter

Debby K

I thought I should outline here some of the specific things I find so compelling about Twitter, with suggestions about architectural features to be emulated by other internet services.

twitter web2.0 socialnetworking Article tools O'Reilly

Jan Smith

twitter web2.0 socialnetworking

Scott Beamer

"If you care what I think, you know that Twitter is just about the best way to learn what I'm paying attention to. I pass along tidbits of O'Reilly news, interesting reading from mailing lists and blogs I follow, and of course, tidbits from the twitterers

web2.0 twitter timoreilly tech socialsoftware socialnetworking socialmedia tweetmarks socialweb delicious-imported-31Mar09

Craig Nansen

Twitter

Chris Penny

twitter web2.0

Rick Powell

twitter socialnetworking social networking

Lisa Thumann

twitter web2.0 socialnetworking article

Alice Barr

twitter

Lucy Gray

twitter

roland legrand

web2.0 twitter tweetmarks tech socialweb socialsoftware socialnetwork socialnetworking timoreilly

Antonio Viva

web2.0 twitter socialnetworking socialnetwork socialmedia resources reference

Thomas Renault

web2.0 twitter

Yassine L Hassani

Web2.0 Article Web

If I'm interested in someone, I don't have to ask their permission to follow them. I don't have to ask if they will be my friend: that is something that evolves naturally over time.
radually, through repeated contact, we become friends.
5 more annotations...
- ambient intimac
- Twitter even lets competitors (like FriendFeed or Facebook) slurp its content into their services. But instead of strengthening them, it seems to strengthen Twitte
- allowed for third party services to be layered not just on the API, but on the content.
- Twitter is a re-incarnation of the old Unix philosophy of simple, cooperating tools. The essence of Twitter is its constraints, the things it doesn't do, and the way that its core services aren't bound to a particular interface.
  
  It strikes me that many of the programs that become enduring platforms have these same characteristics. Few people use the old TCP/IP-based applications like telnet and ftp any more, but TCP/IP itself is ubiquitous. No one uses the mail program any more, but all of us still use email. No one uses Tim Berners-Lee's original web server and browser any more. Both were superseded by independent programs that used his core innovations: http and html.
- What's different, of course, is that Twitter isn't just a protocol. It's also a database. And that's the old secret of Web 2.0, Data is the Intel Inside. That means that they can let go of controlling the interface. The more other people build on Twitter, the better their position becomes.
  
  There's a real lesson to Facebook here about giving other services (like Twitter) access to their social graph. They have the best one going, but because they try to keep users coming back to their interface, and even the applications built on their service have to live in Facebook, they end up as a ghetto rather than a true internet service. It's the data, not the interface! Let other people use your data, build on it, and it will still belong to you. Hold it too tight, and they will compete with it.

Steve Ransom

twitter

Ben Harris-Roxas

From the O'Reilly Radar blog

twitter web2.0 blog tools tool socialnetworking

Heidi Chaves

twitter

fun wild

web20

Will Richardson

Like a lot of people, I tried out Twitter early on, but didn't stick to it. Most of the early twitter conversation was personal, and I didn't have time for it. I came back when I noticed that about 5000 people were following my non-existent updates, waiti

3rdedition twitter network_literacy

Ellen Trude

twitter web2.0

Dan Leone

twitter

Olivier Le Deuff

twitter

Suelibrarian

twitter timoreilly socialnetworking

H. Ghareb

Darlene Fichter

Twitter

I soon realized that Twitter has grown up to become a critical business tool, ideal for following the latest news, tracking the ideas and whereabouts of people who will shape the future of technology, and sharing my own thoughts and attention stream.
I soon realized that Twitter has grown up to become a critical business tool, ideal for following the latest news, tracking the ideas and whereabouts of people who will shape the future of technology, and sharing my own thoughts and attention stream.
1 more annotations...
- I soon realized that Twitter has grown up to become a critical business tool, ideal for following the latest news, tracking the ideas and whereabouts of people who will shape the future of technology, and sharing my own thoughts and attention stream.

pat kitano

twitter

Sean D

web2.0 twitter socialmedia o'reilly

Michael Becker

Tim O'Reilly lets us know why the simple and functional Twitter is one of his favorite communication tools.

Technology&Science twitter social_networking microblogging

Jackie Ng

socialmedia twitter

Mark Vukovic

twitter socialnetworking

Sean Hackbarth

Jon Aston

twitter

Tobias Verhoog

twitter

Rajan Datta

twitter web2.0

29 Nov 08

Isabelle Jones

twitter Article training resources

L@jost EU project

twitter web2.0 microblogging l@jost

Antonio Tombolini

In many ways, Twitter is a re-incarnation of the old Unix philosophy of simple, cooperating tools. The essence of Twitter is its constraints, the things it doesn't do, and the way that its core services aren't bound to a particular interface.

twitter o'reilly

Robin M. Ashford

twitter oreilly

Howard Rheingold

I thought I should outline here some of the specific things I find so compelling about Twitter, with suggestions about architectural features to be emulated by other internet services.

twitter

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