Twitter and Microsoft Open Source Heroes

Some time ago (over a year!) I checked out TwitterEarth. Scared by the experience I thought "I haven't got time for this rubbish". Then my good friend and colleague Roger Lawrence started writing entries from his mobile when I caught up with him - with confidence he said his "Followers" were reading the content.

What's all this nonsense? Well essentially I think of Twitter as MicroBlogging and as such it provides short (sms like), time specific information about what a person is doing ( the GPS location would be of benefit).

This only came to the front of mind at the recent Wave Launch in Australia "Heroes Happen Here 2008". Incidentally if you ever thought you wouldn't see Open Source on a Microsoft site check this out.

During the fun packed day some plasma screens in the lobby had twitter messages appearing about what was happening. It created a buzz about the event and a sense of urgency about missing out on something new.

Putting this in a business context is hard. Perhaps however for a group of individuals, say insurance agents, to measure the impact of various events during the day - each agent sharing data without the need to phone/consult or wait for information to be received. Twitter could help in reconstructing the events and making critical decisions from multiple people.

Twitter also became more relevant, as things do when constructed as for the Vista sidebar, when I saw this neat but curiously named "Twadget"

Lastly its probably worth reading the BBC article How Twitter Makes it Real