The Hunt

My first NECC was a wonderful experience. I did not show up with an agenda to fill, but I did have the seemingly manageable goal of meeting some people I follow on Twitter. The social service Twitter has become the backbone of my personal learning network and I feel very close to many of the people I follow, both personally and professionally.

Just because I feel close to a person doesn’t mean this feeling is shared, and of course there is always that fine line that separates a loose association with another person from being labeled a stalker. As difficult as this balance is to strike, I was determined to meet these people that I have come to admire. Having provided me with valuable resources and a never ending supply of great ideas, I wanted to introduce myself and try to express my appreciation for their willingness to share their lives, in 140 characters or less, with little old me.

Early on Sunday, I spotted Liz B. Davis as she was hurrying down the hall to something important. This is not surprising as NECC is filled with many important meetings, sessions, and opportunities for food. I resisted the urge to chase after her, and felt ridiculous standing there with absolutely no plan in mind.

I have been accused of being a face poser, or someone who has a Twitter picture that doesn’t look like them in real life. The picture that I use (top left corner of this page) does look like me if I have facial hair, wear stupid 3D glasses, and take my own picture with camera while making a silly face. I chose this picture because it does best represent the silliness that is within me. The problem is that I look more like the picture below. So tracking down my Twitter friends is difficult because from their perspective, some strange guy is trying to get their attention…

Having this first “attempt” at meeting a Twitter friend go so poorly, I thought that maybe I should just be more bold and step up the plate and get it done. What did I have to lose?

My next attempt at meeting someone from my list happened on the vendor floor. I saw Angela Maiers not 15 feet away from me, walking away. I shouted her name out, and she stopped and turned to me. Only then did I realize my mistake. Ms. Maiers is a very attractive woman, and I locked up like a deer in headlights. I think I may have mumbled my name and that I followed her on Twitter, I don’t really remember, but I am sure that my conversation skills deteriorated rapidly from there. She was polite and skillfully broke off contact with me, and I knew I had ruined a chance to just be a respectable adult.

Up to this point, my lack of social skills had turned my, “Twitter Hunt” into,” Twitter Crash and Burn.” As a teenager I learned that having a wingman could always help me to bridge the social gaps that I alone could not fill. The problem at NECC was not that I didn’t have friends to pick up my slack and help me to reach my goal, it was more that with a variety of interests and opportunities we did not stick together during the day.

Fred Delventhal is actually someone who I knew from my experiences in Second Life (SL) as Riptide Furse. My first meeting at NECC with Fred was brief, but I was able to follow it up later at a Tweet Up. This seemed more appropriate to me as we both had a beer and was similar to a time we had in SL drinking virtual beer and falling over on the floor. Good times!

Having met Scott Merrick in SL as well, I was delighted that he said that he was giving out free hugs at NECC on his Oh! Virtual Learning blog. This was the friendly, warm opening I was looking for! No pressure for the socially inept such as me. Now all I had to do was track him down and I could cross him off my list. Luckily for me, he was not hard to find. All I had to do was visit the Second Life Playground for a few minutes and I got my hug!

The one person that I most wanted to meet was Kevin Jarrett. After first reading his blog a couple of years ago, I realized how little I had achieved in a similar position in my own school. My friends who have heard me speak of him have even accused me of having a bromance, or man crush, on Mr. Jarrett. While this term offends me, it is probably an accurate portrayal.

At an ISTE meeting in SL in my early days in-world, I was waiting for a speaker to begin and Kevin was handling the security- making sure everyone had their microphones off. My mic was stuck in the on position somehow (these things happen in SL), and I may have yelled at my kids or something, saying, “Stop it! Get out of the kitchen!” or something similar. I was very upset when Kevin instant messaged me asking me to turn my mic off or he would be forced to boot me off the island. The last thing I wanted was to have him kick me off ISTE Island!

I spotted Kevin early on Monday at the Blogger’s Café. He was talking to some people and I just didn’t want to interrupt. Plus, considering how my earlier attempts at Twitter friend contacts had failed, I was feeling even more self-conscious. I ended up walking away.

Monday night I was surprised to get a Direct Message (DM) from KJarrett saying he was looking for me! Yes, it was kind of thrilling. I couldn’t imagine that he would even know me. Now it was on!

Wednesday morning I was collecting my things to make a quick departure from the D.C. area when who should I see coming up the opposite escalator from me? Yes, I would be just feet away from Kevin Jarrett in the middle of the two escalators’ path. Feeling emboldened by his DM, I shouted down the escalator to him, exchanged a few words, and briefly shook hands with Mr. Jarrett. Awesome! I was able to leave the conference happy.

There were quite a number of people that I did not get a chance to see in person, or attempt to meet. Cathy Nelson was someone I really wanted to meet. She was very nice to me once, and I just wanted to thank her in person for her kindness. But, it was not to be…

If I were to rate my Twitter friend hunting skills, I would have to say C or C-. As badly as I mishandled some encounters, and couldn’t locate some of the people on my “who I want to meet list,” I did have a couple of successes. Perhaps in the future I will perfect my social skills, or just pay a silver tongued wingman to hang out with me the whole time I am at a big time educational technology conference.

Leaving the Island

I left the island almost exactly a year ago. I was sitting in a summer conference session learning about web 2.0 tools. At the time I did what I always do, I jumped right in and began exploring. I didn't know what I would find or have any idea that a trip was in my future, but as I created my Twitter account something within me began to change. I had tapped into a new power.

In the first few moments nothing seemed different, but by inserting my ridiculous picture as a representation of myself in Twitter, it was as if I was applying for a passport. The only difference was that I chose the stupidest picture a had of myself instead of the most professional. The picture is appropriate, because I am rather silly, so I left it in Twitter and kept it here on my blog as well.

I say that I have left the island because I am no longer isolated. Instead of mocking something new, which is of course the most grown up and mature thing that I could have done, I took a chance and just tried it. Without expectation, I allowed Twitter to grow and I sought out others simply because they were out there too. I formed a social network of people with similar interests, or at least people that made me laugh. Before I began my exploration, I knew the definition of a social network, but not the experience of being a part of one. It is similar to seeing a book on a shelf, as opposed to actually reading the book. Unlike a book, I don't think anyone will turn Twitter into a full length movie, but if they did it might look like this...

Earlier this week, I tried to express to a group of follow computer resource teachers how Twitter has changed me. Very few, if any of them, really know me. After all, I haven't been off the island that long. Telling them how I have changed seemed so hollow.

I tried to tell them of the professional growth that I have made in my short time on Twitter. I emphasised the personal learning network aspect of the micro blogging service. I even compared it to the master's program that I was in a few years ago, but the comparison, while accurate, sounded funny even to me. It is not hard to understand why there was a snicker or two.

You can be a travel agent, but people must choose to leave the island on their own. No one should be Gilligan and remain stuck on an island forever.

So, how do you encourage others to leave the island?

Social Network Distress

About a year ago I started to explore social networking. I decided to create a personal learning network. I didn't call it that, it just sort of happened. My network became as important to me as my friends and family in the real world.

It sounds strange, but it is true. Twitter became a way to connect with others sharing the good things that I found and collecting resources that my "Tweeps" thought were useful. I created a blog (obviously) but there really wasn't the feeling of connectedness there that I enjoy from Twitter.

I love Second Life, and I have made many new friends there, but Twitter is a faster way to connect with more people. Second Life takes a bit more time to get into, you can't just jump in and out and have anything meaningful happen there.

I have experimented in other social networks. Nings, Plurk, Pownce, and My Space, just to name a few. The problem then became that I had so many separate networks that there really was no way to keep up with them all. I started looking for a way to connect them so that I would have a way to communicate across networks. So I tried Ping.fm, Plaxo Pulse, and Jaiku, as well as a few others.

The only one service I care about is Twitter. It first, my exploration into other services was all experimental. Later, it was because I was unhappy with Twitter. It has taken me almost an entire year to develop my Twitter circle. It is a slow process connecting to others in a meaningful way, so I care about my group. Leaving them to go to another service is something I could not stand, unless they all came with me. It is the people that make the network, not the service. The problem is that Twitter is making me very upset.

The Fail Whale is kind of an inside joke with people who use Twitter. It is a happy blue whale being carried on strings by the cutest little birds. The whale only appears when Twitter is not working right. When you see the Fail Whale as a Twitter user, this is not a good thing, but it is not the only annoying problem that I have experienced.

In the good old days I could count on an "Older" text link at the bottom of the page to link me to more Twitter messages than would fit on one page. This was awesome because I didn't feel like I had to check Twitter 100 times a day to keep up with my network. Now it seems like the "Older" link is gone forever.

I used to be able to pull a trick to get around the missing "Older" link. I would add this suffix, ?page=2 to the end of the Twitter URL, http://twitter.com/home, so that it would look like this, http://twitter.com/home?page=2, Twitter would take you to the previous page of tweets and you could read the older posts from your network anyway. This made me feel super smart. You could even add a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 to the end of the URL to visit even older posts. This trick will not work anymore. If you try it, Twitter just bounces you back to the main page.

I can no longer keep up with my "Tweeps." Between not being able to get on Twitter and not seeing any more than the first page of Tweets, I am not happy. I am can't give up, so I have started looking for a program or service that will make me feel like I am on top of all of the messages flying around.

Twhirl is a nice little program. It is small, sits on your desktop, and seems to get your Tweets pulled in nicely. But I think there is a limit to the number it will pull at one time. The best feature is also the most distracting. There is a little notification bubble that pops up whenever you get a message. I like this feature, but being the ADD poster child, I find that the constant stream of popping bubbles keeps me from doing other things like, oops! There goes one.

Tweetdeck is a program that I like, and with a recent update it says it will pull up the last 200 messages, but I don't believe it. The last tweet that was pulled in last night was at Tue 15 Jul 23:20, and my first one this morning was at Wed 16 Jul 04:57. I am not a math person but is Tweetdeck telling me that not one of my Twitter friends posted a tweet in over 5 hours? That is unbelievable to me. I have at least a couple of Twitter friends who live in Asia, and a few people I know are night owls. I am missing something!

No matter what I use to interact with my Twitter friends, I am not getting all of my Tweets.

Check out this article if you would like a more detailed breakdown between Tweetdeck and Twhirl.

Things have been moving lately with Twitter. Twitter recently acquired Summerize and they supposedly have more money and big names working for them. Great! Can they make it so I don't lose any Tweets? I feel like I can hardly leave my computer or I will miss the most important Twitter message ever. I don't know what it could be, maybe the newest Dr. Horrible episode is ready!

My real fear is that on my upcoming Disney vacation I will lose a whole week's worth of Tweets. The hotel we are staying at charges extra for Internet access. What year am I in? There is no reason to take the laptop. Ahhh! Did I say that?

If I try real hard I think I can post and read a few Tweets a day on my cell phone. What happens if I drop my phone on the trip? Am I risking suffering the agony of Delirium Tweetums?

NECC T-shirt, follow-up!

Kim Caise, a teacher who also missed the fun NECC liked my shirt and offered to help anyone who wants one get it at a lower price! If you are interested in a shirt, try out Kool Imprints.

Her comment- "We can print the shirts for you for around $14 including shipping. Feel free to contact us for a price quote at: http://koolimprints.net/default.aspx." That is at least $3 less than what I paid for mine!

This is what the shirt looks like...

Thanks to Tracy Murdach at http://www.all4techintegration.blogspot.com/ for the shout out on your blog!

Thank you to Vicki A. Davis at CoolCatTeacher, http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2008/07/hilarious-tshirt-for-those-who-didnt-go.html! My picture is on her blog! Man, I really need to work out or something...

Thank you to the Tech Chick Tips, http://techchicktips.net/2008/07/08/necc-08-t-shirt-anyone/! I am honored by the attention.

I think it is great that people like the t-shirt. I would be very excited to see someone wearing it someday.
:-)

NECC T-shirt

About a week ago, I decided to create a t-shirt to show my displeasure at having all the people I follow on Twitter go to NECC and leave me behind. I was bored and it seemed like something fun to do. I designed the shirt based on the Twitter status link that shows individual Tweets.

Here is the original design that I made.

I tried to keep things simple and just made everything in Word, and took a snapshot of it with the Print Screen command. I used Picasa to crop the image and convert the it to a jpeg.I uploaded the file to Zazzle.com and they showed me a preview of the shirt.

It looked good, but Zazzle warned me that the the image might pixelate. I was willing to chance it, so I went ahead and ordered one. My shirt arrived today and this is what it looks like-

It looks better than I had hoped for! The only problem is that I didn't order an extra large... As long as there is no shrinkage there should be no issues. The shirt has no tag in the back- I love that!

If you would like a t-shirt like mine, click this link! I tried to set up a Zazzle page to share and sell my t-shirt but I was not interested in making a profit. I thought that $17.45 was plenty to pay for a t-shirt without me trying to add on a 10% profit on all sales. So I sent myself an email with a link to to image on a shirt, and you can have the shirt for what I paid for it if you like it. If you have any problems with the shirt, let me know I will help.

I also searched Google for a Zazzle coupon (I embedded the search into the link), I found one for free shipping and paid only $17.45 to have the shirt sent to me.

Zazzle is only one of many online stores that will put anything on a t-shirt, mug, mouse pad, etc. I think making a t-shirt has never been so easy, even if you don't like mine- make your own!

Connections

Since I dove into social networking almost a year ago now, I have felt connected to people that I have never met in the real world. I feel like I have friends all over the place. It is true that this is the very surface of a friendship, kind of like the guy the runs the local convenience store that you make small talk with when you see him every few days.

The difference is that so much more is shared with my virtual friends. I see personal pictures, videos, and read private thoughts of people who may only be represented by a small icon in Twitter. I carry on conversations with people while our avatars in Second Life are sailing around the island by my second life home. I visit blogs and learn out how others work, live, and what they are passionate about.

My Fail Whale Tshirt!

Joe at the Mini Mart and I share almost nothing of substance. We only talk about the weather, sports or gas prices in 30 sec snippets. Funny, but all of the conversations end the same, "What are you going to do?" As in, "The ____(insert weather, Redskins, or gas prices here) stink, but what are you going do?" I am not sure how it became acceptable to insert a question into the closing of a conversation, but what are you going to do? Then I usually say something like, "See you later," or if I am feeling especially friendly, "Take it easy."

It is extremely important to me that I maintain, and hopefully improve, my real world relationships with my family and friends, and never short-change them while I explore social media. While I have thrown myself into the exploration of social networking tools with great enthusiasm, I will not allow my real world relationships to suffer for any reason. Virtual relationships should extend what is possible in the real world, not take anything away from what you already have. Amazingly, I have found that both worlds can coexist and my virtual social experiences have made me a better teacher, and a better communicator in the real world.
This weekend I have my first virtual job. I volunteered to be a tour guide at the Alamo in Second Life (SL) for ISTE during the NECC conference. I am kind of nervous, because no matter what anyone thinks, an avatar is a representation of yourself and I really want to do a good job.

Mission Padre- Alamo Tours

I will be leading tours at the Alamo as a Franciscan Monk. My first real purchases in SL were my monk outfit and skin for my Monk. I also thought it was important to have some gestures, so I bought four. I can't remember how much it cost in Linden Dollars, but in total it was about $5 US. I don't know if that is a good price or not, but I am happy with my purchases.

I am not sure why I decided to be a Monk, but I literally jumped at the chance. Peaceful acceptance of the universe seems appealing to me at this point in my life. I have always struggled and fought with life, but I have come to understand and appreciate the gift I have been given. All of my anger and conflict of the past have only hurt me, but I didn't even consider that at the time I chose the role. It just seemed to fit at the time. A monk with three children. I think the church would frown on that.

I was going to try to adopt an accent for my character as I did over hear another tour guide doing that and it sounded great, but as I mentioned before all of my accents sound like bad Irish from a drunken Leprechaun. I figure that I should probably stick with speaking in my regular voice, sounding like a bad cartoon character would distract from what I am trying to accomplish. I don't mind being laughed at but I don't think anyone from ISTE would think it was funny...

I am a little disappointed that I can't be at the conference, but being able to give this tour does make me feel like I am part of what is going on in San Antonio. Otherwise, I am pretty sure I would be upset. I think half the people I follow on Twitter will be there. I am sure I will get Twitter updates, blog entries and maybe even some video and pictures from NECC, but I can't help but feel like I am missing something (besides the free drinks and goodies that get handed out).

Next year the conference will be in Washington D.C. I am planning to go to that one because it is reasonably close to home, but it is a whole year away. I will just have to hope for the best and try to plan ahead. It is nice to think that I would meet people in real life that might tolerate me because they have come across me in a virtual exchange. After all, what what is the point of being a part of a social network if you never actually connect?

Sprout for 1776

This afternoon I had some unexpected time alone. No one was at home, so I played with a flash gadget creator, Sprout. Very cool! When Flash was new, I played with it and had dreams of doing fun things with it, but my life has taken a different path. The Sprout interface lets you do just about anything that Flash can do for you, it has templates that you can start from and it has a lot of functionality that you can add with just a click. I had a lot of fun playing with it. And best of all, it is free!

I usually like to have some kind of direction when I play, so I attempted to organize my school system's next Twitup. One of the guys in our group, Joel McDonald, is going to be in play, 1776. As a group, we discussed trying to go and see the play, but it can be difficult to get everyone to nail down a day. The Sprout gadget was a try at organizing a day, but I decided not to explore all of the options that were available to me. I embedded links and a youtube video. One link in the Sprout leads you to Joel McDonald's Twitter page. All of the others lead to a private SharePoint site (anyone who is not in Virginia Beach schools can not access the site, sorry!).

So, to sum up; Sprout is very cool, and VBCPS Twitter people- visit the SharePoint site and vote for a day to see 1776!

Special Twitter Message

On Monday, I made my 1000th twit, or it is tweet? Anyway, I left my 1000th entry on Twitter. I am not sure what this makes me. A very shallow person who lives life through 140 characters or less? Someone who has a lot to say about almost nothing? I guy who enjoys the weak ties to other people in a very non committed way? Maybe I am a little of all of these things, or maybe none of them. I don’t know.

I like Twitter a lot. I really feel connected to others in a way that I have never been before. My own personal world is very small. I have a great family and a great job. That is my circle. I rarely go out for any social experiences. I don't belong to any groups, and the number of real life friends I have is small. I don't think I consciously made a choice for this to happen, it is simply the way your personal reality becomes when you settle down and start a family.

Twitter has allowed me to expand my social circle in a way that I had not imagined before my first Twit. Twitter has become important to me personally and professionally. My day is not complete unless I have checked it 20- 30 times and made at least 10 good entries. So I have developed my own way of seeing the proper use of Twitter. I try to not be angry or upset a lot on Twitter. It happens, but I do try to limit it. Everyone thinks it is funny when you lose it over something stupid like not being able to make your own Mac and Cheese, but no one wants a constant barrage of negativity.

I think it is only polite that if someone follows you that you take the time to check them out and follow them back. Unless they are some front for spam, or they are mindless twitterers who post the top 100 mundane things they do each day. I like a wide variety of things and love to hear differing points of view. I don't want to hear people rant, or see the ugliness out there. I can block users that I simply don't approve of, but if for some reason, they are trying for a world record of peop to follow, I'll keep them but just not return the follow. That is my choice. I am currently following 100 people and being followed by 84. I would like the numbers to be even, but it is ok this way, I don't worry about the numbers. I think the give and take is much more important.

I like it when people share ideas, links, and cool things on the web. I like to share back when someone needs help, or maybe a laugh. This is the exchange that makes Twitter feel like a community and a conversation. This is what attracted me.

I don't like it when people preach from the mountain top. I don't want to follow people who don't think that I am good enough to hear from. I don't believe that is what the new social web is all about. If I want to be treated that way, I can just watch TV. There are plenty of people on TV who will be happy to talk down to me.

The other day one of my fellow Twitter friends shared a post from David Jakes called, Tragedy of the Commons. Mr. Jakes’ post upset me very much, but even so, I refuse to comment on his blog. I have even waited to respond for six days because it has bothered me so much. This is the part that summed up the entire post for me-

"In my opinion, Twitter really has also changed how some people interact, and not in a positive way. When did the defacto standard greeting at a conference become “Hi, I follow you on Twitter.” How about “Good Morning?” Then, “But you don’t follow me.” Gee, sorry, not my responsibility…"

I had never heard of Mr. Jakes before I read this blog entry, but the post bothers me because it seems that this man is making a living being some sort of education and technology guru. He has 921 followers on Twitter and only 78 are important enough for him to follow in return, and with the statement above, it really seems to me that he simply does not care enough to fake concern for the people who probably help to put food on his table. He comes across as an educational technology elitist. I hope that is not really the way he is because I don't think that is the type of person who should be influencing others.

If I was following him, which I am not, and never will now, I would block him. I know he wouldn't care, because I am nobody. I am unimportant in the world of instructional technology, or anywhere else really. But that's ok, my dog likes me. If he can disregard us nobody Twitterers, I can certainly return the favor. I might be throwing out lots of good stuff with the one bad thing I came across, but I will take that chance.

There are plenty of other people who can at least pay me the compliment of faking that I could be important to them. Will Richardson passed along an article that I sent him. That one small thing made me feel pretty good. Sylvia Martinez and I actually had a conversation once when she responded to my blog. I thought that was really cool. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach is someone that I have worked with, well I should clarify, we have held the same position (computer resource specialist) in the same school division, we have talked, and she has always been nice to me. The point here is that maybe I am a nobody to these other educational technology leaders, but at least they have the manners enough to not come right out and say it.

Who knows, maybe this was just Mr. Jakes plan to drum up conversation on his blog. If so, maybe it worked in the short term. He has 60 responses to this one blog entry. Will this increase his following? Not with this one little nobody. I really don't need anyone to poke me with a stick and point out that I don’t matter. That is simply not the positive experience I am looking for in life.

Don't worry Mr. Jakes, if I ever have the opportunity to ever meet you, I will not say, "Hi, I follow you on Twitter. But you don’t follow me.”

But I will say, Good day to you, Sir!

It's a Twitter World

I have really come to enjoy using a little web 2.0 tool named Twitter. I have even mentioned it in my Blog before (here, and here). I like it because it lets me connect with people, some of them don't even know. That seems odd, but aren't relationships sometimes about the enjoyment we get out of vicariously experiencing others lives?

I suppose some chose me to be in their Twitter group of people they follow because of where I live, what my job is, or maybe it is completely at random. It does not matter, because I really look forward to hearing what everyone else is doing. One guy who is following me works for the NFL and is at the Super Bowl today. His little bits of insight into that world are fascinating to me.

Sometimes the postings are lame- I don't care, almost all of my postings are lame! I still want to know what is going on with everyone. I think there is a connective power in sharing 140 characters at a time. Thankfully, I am not the only one who thinks like this or it would get boring very quickly. But there are limitations to Twitter- sometimes 140 characters is not all that I want to share.

I am excited to say that there are many tools out there that borrow from the Twitter idea (which was not the first tool of this type) and make a different communication tool, or use Twitter to add to their own tool set.

Jaiku is a similar to Twitter. You can post what you are doing or thinking, but you can also add in your other social RSS feeds such as Twitter, del.icio.us, Flickr, this blog or anything else that has a feed url you can copy and paste. I like this micro-blog but I must stay were my peeps are, and I can keep this one active without visiting it (I really only have one active friend there so I don't think she misses me).

Pownce is very Twitter like, but you can add in links, files and calendar events along with your message which can be longer that 140 characters. You can even import your friends from Twitter.

Plaxo Pulse is interesting because it allows you to have one place to access all of your social services (RSS feeds), email, and more. You can host photos, videos and snyc your calendar. There is a place for notes and tasks and more. It kind of does a little bit of everything. I am only playing with it now. Once I figure everything out it might just be a good starting point of my day...

Viygo is an interactive timeline that you can use to pull in your messages and your friends messages from Twitter. You can create your own timelines and pull in news to the timeline. A different way to see what is going on.

There is a new service called Seesmic which is like Twitter but with video messages. I haven't been able to play with it because I can't get an account set up (still waiting for an invitation code) but it sounds like a cool idea.

Yedda is a social service that revolves not around people, but questions and the answers that people have to the questions. When you sign up, it asks you what subjects you feel that you are an expert in, and then when questions are submitted that are a fit for you, you get a chance to help someone. I like the idea of helping others a lot, but hate the adds on the side. Nothing is perfect, and people do need to make money!

Tweetmeme looks for postings on Titter that link to outside content and then it compares the links it finds to sort out what are the post popular links. Like a Twitter popular links aggregator. Interesting...

Because Twitter uses an open API, things like Tweetmeme are possible. Some smart people have taken the API, and pulled political Tweets and compiled them at Politweets. Candidates are posting to Twitter and so are political reporters and bloggers who are following the primaries. If you are interested in politics- it keeps an up to the minute commentary about what is going on right now in the campaign. I don't think you can be any better informed of what is going on.

Twitter has become a different way of sharing information that is beginning to be taken pretty seriously a valuable tool by many people. But even though it is fun, you do need to know how to behave while using Twitter, or you risk annoying your friends. Of course, we can all be better Twitter users. It does bother me that some people over-think things about Twitter, but I am sure that Twitter is something that is a little different for everyone. It does not worry me any because Twitter will become what people decide that it should be, or they will just move on to the next free social tool...

My Twitter (and Twitter-like) Links -
Twitter
Jaiku
Pownce