Okay, that site is BAFFLING!
Hmm, I guess I should explain it. Everyone in the podcast world seemed to know about it months before I did, so I forget what it looks like from the outside.
Twitter's a sort of micro-blogging application. It asks you exactly one question:
"What are you doing?" And you answer it in 140 characters or less. (I believe this specific limit's related to SMS; it's set up so you can also post to it from your cell phone or most IM services, or from various little applets.)
Other people with Twitter accounts can then add you as their friend. When they do, they are 'following' you -- your answers to "What are you doing?" show up on their home page, or optionally on their cell phone or IM or helper applets. So the important effect is: your friends on Twitter all know what you're doing. Or at least, whatever you choose to tell them you're doing.
It sounds utterly stupid, but there's a charm to it. You start following other people and there's a sort of gestalt that forms, public conversations that are more ephemeral and casual than blog comments. And it doesn't eat
too much time, because how long does it take to read a 140 character message? Or to write one? It only eats time if you start thinking about it too much. Which isn't exactly the intent.
Anyway. I'm enjoying it for now. Dunno if I could stick with this in the long term, but it's one more fast and spontaneous place for me to be a smartass. (As if I needed another.)
