I Twittered, Then I 'Tumbld' ...
Posted on: Saturday, 12 May 2007, 03:00 CDT
By Cohen, Steven M
Library Stuff Revisited
For those of us who like to think that we are on top of every possible technology trend, using the hippest online tools, piercing through content, and then sharing our new infatuations, the past few months have been a blur.
I Twittered
A few days before embarking on a trip to Carlsbad, Calif., to take part in ILS training for a client, I caught the Twitter bug (it's contagious, so be wary), and I haven't been able to shake it since.
Think of Twitter (www.twitter.com) as a combination blogging/IM/ social networking/social bookmarking experience where you share what you're doing at a precise moment, and anyone can read about it- either on the Web, in their aggregators, on their phones, or in their IM. And, you only have 140 characters to tell the world what you're up to (not an easy task for some).
Twitter users can choose who they want to "follow" or to be their "friend" (like RSS, Twitter is opt-in). Following someone means that you will see what they are Twittering. A friend is someone whose posts you are watching. For example, when I was writing this column, I had 67 friends and 71 followers. So, in a River of News-type format (www.reallysimplesyndication.com/ riverOfNews), I see all the posts that I have chosen as my friend. In turn, anyone who has made me a friend will see my posts.
RSS on Steroids
If this sounds familiar, it should. This is RSS 101 turned up a few notches. My Twitter page (www.twitter.com/steven cohen) is similar to a blog, and my page of those I want to read is similar to my aggregator. It's a continuous flow of what my friends are doing.
So, why has it become a phenomenon in the blogging community? A few reasons come to mind. First, those of us who work online for most of the day-reading feeds, blogging, taking photos, and posting them on Flickr-like to talk about ourselves. We want everyone to know what we are doing, what we like, how we like doing it, and what we stand for. With Twitter, we can do this from anywhere (PDAs, Web, IM), enhancing the experience. Second, it's easy. It's too easy. In fact, it's so easy that we can quickly post something while waiting at a traffic light or stepping off a subway car. Third, it has an API, with which coders have built fantastic tools. Here are a few Twitter tools:
* Twittervision (www.twittervision .com) combines the most recent Twitter posts with Google Maps. Every few seconds, a new Twitter post pops up where the user has specified his or her location. I have spent a good 30 minutes staring at this page, waiting for my face to appear. I caught it once.
* Twittersearch (http://twittermap .com/search) indexes Twitter posts and shows search results for the most recent 10 results that match any keyword. I have found this useful when looking for new friends.
* RSS 2 Twitter (www.rss2twitter .com) lets users automatically update their Twitter posts using RSS. I have added my blog RSS feed to this service and will send the title and abbreviated URL using TinyURL (just remember that limited space is available for each Twitter post) to my Twitter page whenever I update my blog.
* EmailTwitter (http://emailtwitter .com) lets users post to Twitter via email. Just follow the easy registration instructions, and you can begin posting directly to Twitter using your preferred email client.
Since Twitter has a large following among the technology crowd, more tools and applications have been created to foster more fun for its community. Check out http://twitter.pbwiki .com.
Then I 'Tumbld'
Still reeling from Twitter, I found another tool that has helped me share content with anyone on an opt-in basis. I've always wanted a link blog, a tool that would let me post links without any explanation or analysis about the URLs-a place to share what I read. I started doing this with del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us) a few years ago, but I couldn't point to links that I had bookmarked in the past (similar to permalinks in blogging software). I then started using Google Reader, which was more intuitive because of the attachment to my RSS reader (see my column in March 2007 IT), but there are still no permalinks. Tumblr (www.tumblr.com) is exactly what I wanted in a link-blog program. It reminds me of the No Frills food brand that was popular when I was growing up. No bells or whistles ... it's good, oldfashioned food-but in this case, we're talking links.
I like a few features. First, Tumblr lets me map any domain to the Tumblr domain registered to my account. For example, my Tumblr page can be found at http://stevencohen.tumblr.com, but it's also available at www.stevenmcohen.com. This makes it easier for readers to remember my link-blog URL. And by posting a photo, the actual photo displays; the same is true for videos.
While I'm always on the lookout for better tools to make my online world easier (it is the theme of this column, right?), I don't think that I will be switching linkblog software anytime soon. Tumblr is that good. In fact, I've added the RSS feed for my Tumblr account to my RSS 2 Twitter setting. Now, every time I add a link to Tumblr, it gets Twittered. How is that for efficiency?
Since Twitter has a large following among the technology crowd, more tools and applications have been created to foster more fun for its community.
Steven M. Cohen is senior librarian at Law Library Management, Inc. in New York. He is the creator of Library Stuff, a blog published by Information Today, Inc. His email is stevenmcohen@gmail.com. Send your comments about this column to itletters@infotoday.com.
Copyright Information Today, Inc. May 2007
(c) 2007 Information Today. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Information Today
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds