Did you call me a Twit?

So, everyone at SXSW was talking about Twitter...Supposedly, it really tipped the scales, sending usage off the charts during the Interactive conference. Check out this chart. I'm not so sure I get it. It's a micro-blogging platform, so you can text, IM, or via Web send an entry. You are limited to 144 characters, so it has to be a short blip, basically what you are doing at that moment in as succinct a manner as possible. It can go out to all your friends via the same methods, and you can be on the public timeline. Fascinating to watch, the details of strangers' personal lives, but I just don't feel up to the commitment. I joined because someone I know invited me, but after about 10 text messages, I turned that feature off. I think it was fun at the conference to watch the public timeline and see what people were doing and thinking while they were in Austin, though.

John Edwards has a Twitter, and that's pretty fascinating. You can see short blips of what he is doing, where he is on the campaign trail. The shortness of the posts is much improved on a blog that rambles on and on...for those of us with short attention spans. But, is this how we really want to engage with our candidates?

Former student Omar Chatriwala mentioned on the WebPubNET forum that Twitter seems a lot like Dodgeball, which was the darling app several years ago. The best I can tell is that Twitter is easier to use and has a cuter interface. And, Omar's right, it is the hot thing of the moment, lots of buzz around it from SXSW, where it won an award for best blog.