Back to the Future: Twitter “microblogging”

“That’s pretty good, Johnny, but that ain’t the way I heerd it. . . .”

I recall when all this “blogging” talk started, way back in 1999 or so (thanks to Hallett for a decent history). The idea was to post thoughts and feelings, observations about technology, society, or whatever – anything from a daily diary to a project notebook. Scoble and others became (in)famous for posting multiple times a day.

Time marches on, and the medium has morphed over the years. Blog post frequency (BPF?) stopped being the measure of success; sites became electronic versions of trade magazines, marketing slicks, talk radio .. along with the occasionally Really Good Blog (couldn’t resist), capturing knowledgeable insights or technical tricks.

Then along comes Twitter, which has made little sense to me to date. Well, ok … let’s say my appreciation for the applicability of this site has slowly matured – along with their ability to avoid the Fail Whale. And I’ve seen another recent burst of activity – mini-Twitter apps, breaking news source, alternative interfaces,  even metrics for personal validation. When  talk turns to monetization and open source competitors appear, I guess you’ve arrived.

I recently happened upon Mr. Tweet, who has helpfully suggested a series of influential tweeters to follow. When Kawasaki and Scoble appeared on the list, it was like a flashback to the old days …

… but this actually got me a bit more enthused. Posting multiple times per day makes a bit more sense when it’s only a brief thought – and Twitter enforces brevity with the 140 character limit.

<aside> Sort of an electronic Strunk ; I’ve had a few posts that took more than a few minutes to compose as I struggled to squeeze in the full thought. </aside>

So, now I’m trying to post more frequently on Twitter during the day, like a blogging old-timer – encouraged, I will admit, by posting into a tweetosphere more amenable to spontaneous connection; a few thoughts during a SharePoint presentation brought a quick response from a SharePoint guru and author, with more than a few tech details on some of the finer [Share]Points (aiw).

We’ll see how long this lasts …