The truly unique characteristics of Twitter are its simplicity and lack of specific purpose or application. Twitter is merely a digital conversation; albeit one that’s constrained to short statements of 140 characters or less. Like any conversation, you choose to talk to one other person at a time or broadcast out to many. You can make your conversations private or public. You can choose to blather, or to comment on everything from walking your dog to world affairs. You can follow and share your thoughts with thousands of people or you can offer your attention to a select few.  As with any live conversation, contribute something particularly witty, funny or unique and your comment could be repeated to millions of users by Twitter’s digital word of mouth, also known as a re-tweet. At its core, Twitter is just a platform for simple conversation and that’s what makes it unique.

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Remember the last page of the Internet? That was a joke that worked on many levels.  We all know how the Web 1.0 story really ended and where the real last page was. We discovered in the minimalist Google homepage that search, rather than content, was the real star of Web 1.0. That search could reconstruct advertising around clicks rather than impressions. The main Google homepage was the real last page of Web 1.0, as I’ll explain. By definition, it was also the first page of Web 2.0. The trajectory of Web 2.0 has now run through a similar course. While no worthy joke page has emerged, it is now clear what the real last page of Web 2.0 is. Take your best guess before you read further.

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So after much reluctance I have finally entered the world of Twitter so I could follow various folks reporting on events at this week’s Cisco C-Scape event in San Jose. Within a few minutes of registering I was able to quickly find friends and colleagues and follow their feeds. Without so much as posting a single “Tweet”, I already had folks following me. So I’m still a little skeptical of the whole Twitter craze, but there are some key value propositions….

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I recently had the chance to read up on Yammer, a twitter-like tool for micro-blogging within an organization. I’d expect that we’ll see a growing interest in micro-blogging, especially for field forces. I can see micro-blogging being an extremely useful tool for those responding to Hurricane Ike to quickly notify superiors and team members about real-time conditions on the ground. Enterprise organizations should keep their eye on micro-blogging and look for opportunities to leverage the technology to improve collaboration and communication among distributed workers.

Steve’s comments below got me thinking about why we don’t just accept information overload, but actually ask for it.

There was plenty of chatter in the blogs this weekend over the decision by the Obama campaign to text its supporters news of the VP pick as soon as it happened (well, as soon as the campaign was ready to release it). Most of it seemed centered around (1) the timing of the text’s release (another 3am brouhaha), (2) the “next-gen Internet outreach” approach, and (3) the pick himself. Mainly lost in the discussion was whether anyone really needed to know the information in real time, on their cells and PDAs.

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The iPhone3G hit stores today, but of course you knew that already. iPhone3G is the device Apple touts as “The best phone for business. Ever” boasting a few new features that business users will need. The iPhone3G is, of course, a “3G” phone meaning it can access higher speed data networks from the wireless carriers. The new iPhone also supports Microsoft Exchange putting push email, calendar and contact information at your fingertips. The iPhone3G has a VPN client, WPA2 Enterprise and 802.1X authentication for business-grade security.

Of course the other big news from Apple is the opening of the App Store and the many 3rd-party apps being made available there. I did a scan of the applications surfacing for iPhone3G paying specific attention to apps that support the Enterprise 2.0 vision. Here’s what I found:

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As blogging moves into the enterprise, one of the biggest questions managers face is whether to monitor the sites, and if so, how much. They can look to the consumer world for cues. Personal blogs (one person sharing his thoughts on his life, or perhaps a more specific topic) are monitored by the blogger directly; since the blogger isnt representing anyone else, let alone an organization, he isnt answerable to anyone but himself and can choose to allow or disallow comments as he see fit. The issue gets more interesting when we look at media sitesnewspapers, magazines and the likethat allow readers to post comments to articles and posts. Continue Reading »

Moderator, Jessica Lipnack, and panelists/blogger Patti Anklam, Doug Cornelius, Cesar Brea, and Bill Ives introduced a PowerPoint presentation-free discussion about what blogging brings to businesses. In a desire to immediately create community, Lipnack asked all the bloggers in the overflowing room to stand up, identify themselves, plus mention their blog. I made sure to stand up and announce my blog, The Spark Minute, while also mentioning that I was blogging for this conference.

Here’s a summary of the issues and points about blogging that were brought up:

• A blog is a personal knowledge management system. That’s your initial audience. From that it grows to people who share your interest.
• People start blogs because they’re tired of answering the same questions over and over again. It’s kind of like a personal FAQ of their knowledge, or a personal knowledge management tool. I must say that’s what I use my blog for and the point above. I’m not necessarily annoyed with questions, it’s just more efficient for me. When people bring up an issue that I’ve written about, I’ll just say, “Oh, I wrote a post about that, I’ll send it to you.”
• Blogging disciplines you to collect thoughts and write them down.
• Not everybody should blog, because feedback doesn’t come immediately, and people will get frustrated by it and quit. Just saying, “Let them try” is ok if you don’t have to use company resources to set them up and train them.
• Micro-blogging creates more relevant connections than blogging.
• Ask yourself, “What’s the business reason for writing this post” before you write.
• Who should blog? Someone who is social and likes to write.
• One person rightly complained that we were not staying on topic of the session title. “What does blogging BRING to business?”
• So 45 minutes into the conversation, Lipnack, the moderator said that blogging can make the environment appear as a much more accessible place to work. It’s a culture change.
• Regarding what does “blogging” mean to business, it shouldn’t be isolated to just blogging. It’s just a tool or vehicle. You have to find out what communications mechanism is right for your environment and objective. Blogs just happen to be a very versatile platform.
• Argument against, “Who’s going to pay for their time to write the blog?”
• What is it in their daily work that they need to be communicating? What are they doing now and how can they do it in a blog?
• Fastest way to get your business to come around is to show the competition is doing it.
• A voice doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have a blog. Don’t get hooked on the term blog. The point is to engage and have channels and avenues for staff to express themselves in the way they like. Could be a discussion board, Twitter, or a full fledged company social networking tool.
• It develops an initial level of trust before you actually meet a person. Because you’re judged first on the words you write.
• A blog lets you prove your expertise. Claiming expertise without it today can be difficult.

More coverage of this session at the Internet Evolution blog.

Make sure you check out the summary of all coverage from the Enterprise 2.0 Conference 2008 in Boston.

While Irwin is Tungling, I’m Tweeting. But at the risk of labeling myself “un-cool” I need to ask - are people finding practical uses for Twitter in business? For those even less cool than I, Twitter is one of several micro-blogging platforms that allow short (usually fewer than 200 characters), text-based updates to people in your network. The Twitter entry on Wikipedia references some very interesting uses of micro-blogging including communication between firemen during the 2007 California wildfires. That’s a great example, but what about the rest of us regular, non-firefighting people? What’s in this for us?

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