I've done a ton of thinking about Twitter. Who hasn't? How funny the mocking of Tweets ("Having a ham sandwich now. NO MUSTARD!") seems almost equal to the raves ("Twitter beat all the rest in showing the pain in Haiti"). I didn't plan to blog about it (see Done. Well, mostly done., first blog in a year, below), but I felt the urge.
For the moment, I mostly mean Twitter as representative of the real-time web. It's one of the "next big things." Yet my interest remains low. Why?
Do I see value? You bet. In particular, I see value for someone who has a natural following needing an efficient conduit to fans, friends, followers, etc. (Kutcher, Obama, Kobe). I also see opportunity for someone who, by nature of their life or activities, has a preferred vantage point for something of interest. If your job is to see technology before others, politician statements before others, martian visits before others, or anything else before others...and if there are enough of these "others" interested, you've got a niche. More power to you.
So real-time has its place. But I realize in my content consumption, I've gone the other way. In audio, I've moved from radio to podcasts to lectures to audiobooks. I get more value from my valuable content consumption time when I listen or read information someone has actually thought about. And probably edited themselves.
This isn't a big deal and this whole topic is not an either/or. It's just a personal trend. Of course, it might also be a blind spot. Since I personally find more value in well-considered content, I have to be careful not to be blind to real-time value. Heck, Hawkins' On Intelligence would have something to say about that sort of blind spot, hmm?
