Referring to an August 2008 story in the New York Times by Sarah Jane Tribble, I scribbled the following Twitter message last night:
Based on whoever watched my stream at that second and chose to respond, here are the 14 answers, in order of arrival:
- The hangover. -Lee Stacey at @pilchardmusic
- The geeks in the corner texting each other from within the same room. – Jamie Scheu at @scheuguy
- The walk in the office hallway or crossing the downtown quad seeing friends and strangers and making quick small talk. – Meryl K. Evans at @merylkevans
- Happy hour. – Stephanie Kieras at @smkieras
- An association where the meeting never ends. – PR Newswire at @prnewswire
- Speed dating. – Nancy Friedman at @fritinancy
- The insane asylum. – Seth Gray at @sethgray
- The water cooler. – Adam Snider at @ink_slinger
- Quick conversations in the elevator. – Ed Bennett at @ed_bennett
- The one night stand. – Craig Kessler at @craigkessler
- A good potluck supper party where everybody brings something to the table. – Liz Polay-Wettengel at @lizpw
- A party line. – B.K. DeLong at @bkdelong
- The water cooler. – Sherry Dedman @sherryness
- The corner or neighborhood coffeeshop. – Avelino Maestas at @avelino
The cliche of a water cooler is used many times, including twice above. I associate my use of Twitter as a combination of PR Newswire’s never-ending meeting and Avelino’s coffeeshop. Both provide imagery without necessity of description, and fall in line with Tribble’s metaphors.
But when I combine meetings and coffee, one idea comes to mind: COFFEE TALK!
To refresh your Saturday Night Live memory, watch this Hulu video (forgive me for the commercial; I didn’t put it in) to understand why:
If I can impart you with one piece of advice about Twitter, it’s that the social network is about people and companies talking among themselves. Collaboration.
To see this in action, check out Shel Israel’s blog where he has an entire category of posts about Twitterville, the title of his pending book. Also visit Laura Fitton’s Twitter for Dummies community as she writes a book of the same name.
Both Shel’s blog and Laura’s wiki enable anyone to vote ideas up and down and contribute content. They have no desire to write books solo. They turn to me for inspiration and I turn to you.
How do YOU define Twitter? And if you’re not using it, why not?
About Ari Herzog
Actually I don’t define twitter. It’s too many things to be just one. Personal, Hobby, Work, Education, Gifts, News, Opinion….so many others. It’s like a personal newspaper on my doorstep every second of the day with content that i want from writers i enjoy reading. I have front page news, sports, arts, opinion, ads, classifieds….everything i need to keep me informed and entertained all day long. and the BIG plus is that it’s not one way media. i can TALK BACK to it talks with me. I’m sure i could do better at a definition but at least that’s part of how/why i use it
Agreed with all of the above. I’ve stopped using the term “microblogging” because that doesn’t do Twitter justice. Someone today referred to someone’s tweets as a tweetstream, which I like because it points to the idea of a lifestream.
Heather´s last blog post..Restoring science in government.
the town square
An ongoing conversation with the world.
Sitting in a restaurant, listening to the discussions at the tables around you.
For *my* use of it, it’s a source of filtered, purified water out of a raging river.
Filtered and purified water out of a river. A raging river at that. I love your environmental mantra.
Sorry to have missed your tweetstream last night as this is a great topic for the Twitter water cooler/ dinner party. But going back to the coffee metaphor, Starbucks considers its stores, the third place. A comfortable spot/ community that is not home (first place) nor work (second place) where people spend lots of time. That to me is Twitter.
Warren Sukernek´s last blog post..Around the World in 140 Characters – Notes from Ev’s speech to Churchill Club
The CB radio of the 21st Century
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My vote: A cocktail party. You can choose who you want to talk to. Sometimes you have to talk to people you don’t want to. Some are there to network…others just to have fun. It’s party (get on the conga line).
Stuart Foster´s last blog post..The State of the Micromediapshere – Guest Panelist
Thinking it over, I think that the coffee shop is probably a better metaphor than the water cooler cliche that I suggested. Water cooler talk tends to be all about gossip (which, of course, is in no shortage on Twitter), while a chat in the coffee shop will potentially be more valuable.
To me, Twitter is a valuable resource for learning new information as well as making new connections (and strengthening existing ones). With that in mind, I have to agree that the coffee shop metaphor might be the best of the suggestions you’ve listed.
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oh i like the cocktail party.
It *is* a raging river of information, Ari. Not just a river, but an overwhelming flow of info on every subject imaginable. The ppl I follow filter that flow, recommending things they personally think are useful.
As for the environmental slant, well, that view of the world is why I work at EPA.
Not the other way around.
Like Caleb said, “The world.” Now, you definitely need to filter – if you don’t, it’s like the Trek episodes where Dianna Troi couldn’t turn off people’s thoughts. Aaaah!!!
I keep going back to Ed Bennett’s symbolism of an elevator ride. That, and Nancy Friedman’s speed dating.
Both speak to me louder than anything else above because they speak to time, not place.
Twitter is not a social network. It’s not a place. I think that’s key.
Last year, the popular press talked about a study that linked the discovery of something new to reward areas in the brain. Basically, it explains why randomly cruising the Web can be so enjoyable. Twitter distills this reward process into a continuous flood of newness, but focused into the areas that matter to you – and it gets out of the way while doing it. No distractions like the clunky interface of Facebook. The 140 char. limitation adds to this effect.
Twitter to me is a cross between a coffee date and a cocktail party. Coffee date because it’s about real people having real, meaningful conversations that create value and build relationships — but it’s a cocktail party because you can tune in and out of conversations, and you’re engaging with multiple people at once.
Maybe Happy Hour, then, is the best way to describe it. Meeting up with old friends and coworkers, meeting some new, strengthening those relationships, and having a good time.
Twitter is the MST3K of social tools.
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i re-read my first comment here and realized it sounded as if i only use twitter for selfish reasons. i’m not just a taker
i actually enjoy giving of knowledge and research more than anything on twitter and i didn’t even mention that. so to me, it’s also a way for me to engage and help others. in fact, it’s my favorite thing to do with twitter.
Great post and conversation. Thanks for including my response. My comparison to happy hour really stems from the idea of a relaxed atmosphere where you get together with pals and “shoot the breeze” about anything you please. This is similar to coffee talk in many ways- though I guess the main difference is at Happy Hour you never know what sort of insane things you come across, as people can sometimes let the Kool-Aid get the best of them
Stephanie, when you initially joined Twitter, how relaxing was the atmosphere? Or did that settle in later? How can Twitter be more relaxing up front?
I think of Twitter as an airport lounge. New people filtering in and out, conversations with people you would never get to meet otherwise, and even a TV you glance at from time to time (promotional stuff.)
Kimberlee
Kimberlee´s last blog post..Book Review: 7 Ways You Screw Up Your Life by Marti Lawrence
Ari – I want to add to my (@prnewswire) previous suggestion that Twitter is an association where the meeting never ends. How about a “think tank.” It seems we are all moving toward something bigger than we realize with the communication and knowledge-sharing we do on Twitter. We are at the beginning of something very exciting.
Twitter is the friend you came to the party with.
Twitter is the collected unconscious.
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Twitter provides an abundance of resources with unique talents. Being a fairly new person to it, I have found great connections and information that I can use in my day to day life as a B2B freelance marketer.
Anna Barcelos´s last blog post..In a transition…
Twitter is an unsupervised high school cafeteria, a mix of newcomers or freshman and the seasoned veterans or seniors. It’s an ecosystem with thoughtleaders or teachers, pimply-faced wallflowers, rambunctious troublemakers, and kids who just want to have fun.
The experience itself is a memorable and meaningful one, but graduation day is bound to come sooner or later.
A place where I can talk to myself and its OK. ; )
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14 Ways to Describe Twitter [link to post] If you’re still in the phase where you don’t tell your friends you use twitter…
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Can we use Twitter for educational activities?