robzand.com

call it one of those perfect storm things. twitter. it’s everywhere. you. turn. haven’t heard of it? here’s one description: Imagine there is a tiny invisible girlfriend sitting on your shoulder, constantly whispering in your ear, demanding to know what you’re thinking at that precise moment. Now, imagine you decide to answer every instance of her question by sending a text message to her, and all of your friends. That’s kind of what Twitter is like and there’s value in that, there really is. a friend and i were discussing something similar the other day, but we were talking about being logged in to an instant message client.

this friend and i used to work together. we saw each other. we talked. we had lunch sometimes. and always, we were aware of each other. when i left the company, that physical presence, that awareness, was gone. but it wasn’t. we saw each other logged in. it’s a funny translation. this physical to virtual sentience. there’s no eye contact. i don’t know whether he’s gained or lost weight, had a hair cut, or been in meetings all day. i merely know that he’s not dead (or, less morbidly, he’s “away from the computer” or “idle”). enter twitter.

with twitter, you’re not dead, you’re:

• updating systems in Totonto from austin
• drinking a hot soy double latte and eating a lemon poppyseed muffin
• Transferring emails from my old .Mac account.
• Playing with MindJet

there’s only one problem. who has time for all this crap? it is like an annoying girlfriend. and pretty soon your twitter will be:

click to see what i’d have drawn after a tufte course

oh silly twitters, let’s get efficient about this. look at gordon bell, he’s twittering his life. it’s automated and useful to him too. to wit:

Our research project, called MyLifeBits, has provided some of the tools needed to compile a lifelong digital archive. We have found that digital memories allow one to vividly relive an event with sounds and images, enhancing personal reflection in much the same way that the Internet has aided scientific investigations. Every word one has ever read, whether in an e-mail, an electronic document or on a Web site, can be found again with just a few keystrokes. Computers can analyze digital memories to help with time management, pointing out when you are not spending enough time on your highest priorities. Your locations can be logged at regular intervals, producing animated maps that trace your peregrinations. Perhaps most important, digital memories can enable all people to tell their life stories to their descendants in a compelling, detailed fashion that until now has been reserved solely for the rich and famous.

so let’s get on this. twitter 2.0 should be useful and seamless. it should automatically update from whatever software i am currently using. let’s build plugins that:

• send a timestamp and url from my browser/feed reader
• log the recipient and/or contents of my sms and instant messages, emails, skypes, and cell phone calls
• grab my itunes tracks played, my iphoto timestamps and geocodes, and my netflix queue, etc…, and
• are configurable as public or private

internet of things, here we come.