Slashdot Mirror
Will Twitter Join Podcasting on the 'Net Sidelines'?
Ian Lamont writes "Twitter has established itself in some quarters as a must-have communications tool, and its power to connect and even incite people is hard to deny. But does Twitter have long-term, mainstream potential? Or does a poor revenue model and strong competition mean that it's destined to be a sideline Internet technology, much like podcasting has failed to live up to early hype?"
Podcasting has hardly been sidelined. In the radio business, podcasting is utterly huge--a transformative, disruptive technology that is propelling new business models and new integration of old and new medias. I host a public radio show myself: our podcasting audience is the equivalent of having a dozen more stations syndicate our show. I'm a convert, too: in 2004 I said podasting was DOA. Boy, was I wrong. I'm now at the point where podcasts are the main way I get radio an it's true for more and more people. We know because our radio audience tells us so and we see it in the numbers.
Wordnik, a dictionary project which aims to collect
It's a fucking Traveling Wilburys song, which The Headstones covered (poorly). Seriously, you need to listen to some Wilburys: Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, George Harrison, and Roy Orbison.
'Twitter has established itself in some quarters as a must-have communications too' APRIL FOOLS!!! right? Well sadly this line was not meant to be all that funny. Twitter is a giant pile of shit. Yes that is right you heard me. For the most part it allows attention hungry people that can't get what they need out of regular blog entries that can be easily ignored, they some how get gratification knowing that all sorts of people are now getting updates at all hours of the day that they are doing mundane SHIT. Great I am glad to know that you are are washing your toy poodle fluffy. Its also really nice to know you are alone drinking at a bar AGAIN. Yeah its nice to know that I can trim away unwanted messages at hours of the day I would like to be sleeping, but until I can find some way of defining what I want to receive updates on based on tags related to content such as social interaction request, personal chore completion, or attention grab by anorexic cutter previously ignored on livejournal I really don't think I am going to renew my deleted account.
Well, I don't have a clue what the twitter in this story is :)
The twitter people in this thread are talking about is a slashdot poster named twitter who has strong opinions on any number of topics--he's particularly anti-MS and anyone who uses MS software--and who blatantly uses several other accounts to back up his main account. (sock puppets if you will)
I'm hearing a lot of "hating" going on but I think it's mainly due to misunderstanding.
Twitter is not "just broadcast instant messaging for the ADD crowd" or "taking social networking to a pathetic extreme".
Twitter is useful. I've found work, I've found contractors, I've found new music, I've found new web apps, I've gotten breaking news before major outlets, I've crowdsourced for opinions when making purchases, I've met new people, discovered new restaurants, and I've used it as a personalized 411 in any number of situations.
I suppose if you and your 3 friends join and just post messages about when you're taking a dump then it's pretty useless. But if you use tools like twittermap.com (http://twittermap.com/maps) to find local people then you can get information about road closings, weather conditions, and other relevant local info. And the situations are endless where it comes in handy to have a local support network of people you are in touch with.
And aside from the local network benefits, you have a real good chance of communicating/networking with some major players/influencers like VC's, A-list bloggers, politicians, celebrities, company founders, etc, etc...
So, if you don't like information, new music, or web technology then don't use twitter. Meanwhile, I'll continue with listening to some cool muxtapes (http://muxtape.com) I discovered through twitter recommendations.
Peace.
While I can't control how other people use Twitter, I personally do not have it sending me emails, IM's, texts, or anything else. The only way I can see what people are saying on Twitter is by actually going to the website. This is why I don't see why I'm "spamming people via Twitter" when I write a message on it. To me it's no different than reading Slashdot.
Having Twitter "invade your life" is 100% an opt-in experience. I never opted-in, so I don't feel like it's invading my life.
Or stated another way, niche markets that could have never drawn enough listeners to make it into traditional media channels suddenly have a channel through which to reach their considerably smaller audience.
Podcasts are no less valid than traditional media because of this--in fact, they could be more valid because of their ability to offer ANY content, popular or niche.
There are a couple really good Linux podcasts, Java Posse is fantastic and Distorted View has such a large audience that was courted by a satellite radio station sight unseen (sound unheard?)--until they actually bothered to listen to the content. My guess is that he has more listeners than most radio shows.
Another interesting aspect, Coverville is as good as most radio shows--better than many. It would have significant appeal to virtually anyone who actually enjoyed music. Yet there are some consumers who limit their choices simply because they have determined to discard the concept of podcasting, I guess because they don't want to change their patterns or they tried it and herd one or two podcasts they disliked and decided the whole Genre must be lame. I guess that's like the way I didn't like Radio when I was young because they were always just talking--then I learned to use The Knob when my parents weren't in control of it.
In part, though, the concept of both Twitter and Podcasting being "Sidlined" is interesting. They aren't, but they don't get much outside publicity either. Many people have simply incorporated them into their lives and don't really feel the need to discuss them outside the media itself--If you love Twitter, why would you go to a blog to discuss it? and Podcasting gets a lot of discussion on podcasts. We don't discuss newspapers or carpet or air all that much, does that make them sidelined or unimportant?