We posted about Twitter [1] back in January pretty much as soon as it came out (Some Folks Are A-Twitter [2]). I was skeptical then, treating it more as a location device — where are you now, rather than what are you doing now — so the office and others could keep track of you. Connie got on to it a few months later (Jaiku Your Feeds [3]), and again we gathered a few comments. It wasn’t going away. Two more posts in August (Twitter , Mr. Speaker [4], Bacn versus Spam [5]) suggested some momentum. And now it’s time to understand that Twitter is not only not going away: it’s growing exponentially.
As much as I’m an early adopter of the new technology, I consistently underestimate society’s appetite for information about its members. Surely, I think, as we layer RSS on top of blogs on top of the web on top of email and IM and SMS, that’s enough, the limit; now we’ll collectively push back from the table and give a gentle eructation signifying satiety. I’ve shown you mine: you’ve shown me yours — six ways to Sunday. Ça suffit.
Absolutely not. In fact if there is one thing I have learned over the last few months, it’s that the next big thing, whatever it may be in earthly form, will entail ways for you and me to exchange information about each other — with more detail, faster, and in living colour. (See Seesmic [6]?)
Now, there’s no reason for the reluctant to Twitter. But there’s also no reason for Slaw to hang back. So I’ve created a Twitter account for Slaw (http://www.twitter.com/slaw_dot_ca [7]) that will let those of you who do Twitter follow it and get prompt notification that a new post is up. At the moment the only information you’ll get is the title of the post (so I’ve got to work even harder at producing straightforward informative titles, rather than nifty oh-so-clever ones). We’ll see how things go — and keep you informed, which is part of the Slaw experiment, after all. (I sometimes think a good motto for Slaw might be “More than you need, more than you know.”)