Twitter on fire

Well, everything is in the title. Here an excerpt of what just happened on Twitter:


My opinion is, lots of people don't get the value of Twitter. They sure think it's fun, but it's no good tool for serious things, let's take work. Which I don't believe it's true. I twitted about that and got in a cool discussion from my English followers. How did we got here? I was brought to think about what's the value and the cost of Twitter after a colleague that I respect much looked at Twitter and said to me "Are you aware of what you're giving of you on the Web?". Well I am, at least I think. But I'm not sure he is aware of the benefits. What are these benefits in a concrete case? For me, they are two benefits that are raw facts.
- First benefit, while I made a one-month trip in New York, I met real New-Yorkers through & only through Twitter. They showed me an insight of the City that I would have never got else. I first tried Internations as a way to meet New-Yorkers, but from my experience, Twitter was much better for that purpose.
- Second benefit, I met one of my career mentor on Twitter. @martinpacker (his Twitter user name) has become my technical mentor because I got to know him on Twitter. Well, first, but only once, we met in real life. After, we got to know each other through Twitter. So Twitter really helps you building human connection with people you've never met in real life.

Twitter helped me a lot. One of the things it brought to me is first to think before saying something? And then express it in a concise way. It's one of the "cold" skills that Twitter help you build. But far from the most important.

On a more social level: What most people just don't get with Twitter, is that it makes you build real human connection. It's not just about posts and number of friends, it's compassion, bad news, support. You're here with the people you follow, and the people that follow you are here with you. More than you believe as a Twitter "outsider". You get in a context with these peoples. Outsiders are just not getting this context.
So this was a kind of big post for my blog. How did I wrote that on Twitter? That were 3 tweets:
1. A Twitter 'outsider' may even have an account.It's someone that look at Twitter w/out participating,and don't get the value for this reason
2. Twitter is more than a forum, because here you can combine the set of knowledge you want, and not be constrained by a forum theme.
3. Twitter is more than chat, because third people that may be interested in the discussion can bring good arguments.
4. Twitter is more than a simple social network site, because it's not for colleagues, friends or dating. So you can meet anyone you want.

Thanks to @dougielawson, @martinpacker and @wfavero for participating in the discussion! Anyone: feel free to comment on this blog too. And last things of all, I'm crazy to blog on Saturday eve. I've got to go out :)