On Tap

This was written at 35,000 feet, so I wasn’t able to look back and see precisely when I last posted here at On Tap, but I know it’s been a while. I guess I got a little burned out, and needed a break. I also got interested in a couple of new toys. A couple of months back, I created a Facebook page. And last month, I joined Twitter, a microblogging community. Both have been interesting and fun.

Facebook brings together people with similar interests. It’s also got lots of cool applications that have been fun to explore and enjoy. In many ways, fooling around with Facebook reminds me of my first tentative steps onto the Internet after a friend plugged my Mac in the wall in our dorm, installed Netscape and pointed me to Yahoo. That prompted countless hours of exploration, trying to figure out just what this Internet thing was, and what it could offer. In short, Facebook has put a little of the fun back in the web, and for that, I’m grateful for its existence.

Twitter, on the other hand, provided me with an alternative for self-expression that rewards my laziness. Rather than composing a fully developed thought for this site, Twitter’s limit of 140 characters per post forces me to publish simple, direct ideas. And so I found myself liberated from the burden of coherence. I have to admit, I’ve enjoyed Twitter a lot. I can compose and post quickly and easily from my laptop, blackberry or cell phone. I can tweet from the car, home, work, airport, and anywhere else. In that respect, Twitter has been truly liberating. Like most folks, I suppose, I have odd thoughts and insights at all sorts of strange times. Many, to be honest, happen while I’m driving. But I usually forgot those thoughts by the time I’ve arrived at my destination. Thanks to Twitter, I can now publish them from a stoplight.

(As an aside, I don’t presume that anyone is actually reading any of this. Heck, I’m sure both readers of this site have long since moved onto other, more content rich locales. But I enjoy opining on things great and small. This site and Twitter both provide facilitate opportunities for me to do so.)

Friends find my conversion to Twitter more than a little strange. For many months, I railed that Twitter emphasized the worst aspects of blogging, and swore that I would never participate. But I discovered the power of Twitter — as one friend predicted I would — at an industry event, where audience members were interacting with each other, discussing a presentation virtually, while the presentation was still happening. It was like a massive IM conversation, and suddenly, I was benefitting not only from the presenter’s expertise and insight, but the entire room.

Twitter does is have its downsides. Its ubiquity rewards instant impressions, not well developed thoughts. And in a medium where too many writers fail to edit themselves sufficiently, Twitter makes self-editing essentially impossible. Further, its required brevity makes it difficult to convey complexity. Nevertheless, like any form of communication, these challenges can be overcome by thoughtful, clever authors, and my experience with Twitter shows that’s precisely what’s happened. My concerns, it seems are unfounded.

After messing around with Twitter for a while, I thought seriously about giving up on this site, and confining myself to Facebook and Twitter. For any number of reasons, I decided just the opposite. Instead, I’m renewing my commitment to On Tap, and if by some miracle your are still reading our site, I pledge to do a better job keeping the content fresh. I hope that Cam and Jim will as well.

Still, if you want to catch me on Twitter, you can always go here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at December 4, 2007 - 2:16 pm and is filed under Admin, Blatant Self-Promotion, Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.