Twitter is my favorite coffee shop

Posted by Stormy on February 27th, 2008 in Open Source

Matt Asay says Twitter is "mindless" and "useless".  I'd say he doesn't know how to use Twitter.

  • Twitter's not a blog - it doesn't give you useful insight or commentary.
  • Twitter's not a news feed - it won't give you all the latest news on any topic.  Although there are news feeds in Twitter.  If you follow a news feed or the new Pulse of Open Source, you will get more of a feel or "pulse" than the authority voice.  You'll know what news riled up the community.  You'll get a feel for how they are reacting to news like when Microsoft wanted to acquire Yahoo!.
  • Twitter's not a way to keep in touch with friends.  I follow my twitter feeds sometimes.  I do check all my @'s.  It's not that I follow too many people to read them all - it's that it just doesn't make sense.  They didn't write all those twits for me to read everyone.  That's what blogs are for.  You don't have to read everything all your friends twit. The best way to keep in touch with me, and many others, is the traditional email, text message, phone, etc.  (Did I just say text messaging is traditional?)

So what is Twitter good for?  To me it's like a coffee shop.  I'm working in a room full of people interested in the things that intrigue me.  I can work quietly in the corner for a while and then when I need a break or I find something interesting to share, I can pop my head up and see what's going on, see what people are talking about, chat for a few moments, check out a few links, share a few witty comments, laugh about something, gripe about something, and then get back to work.  

If you enjoy Twitter for what it is, a coffee shop, a gathering place, it's a great tool.  Just don't expect it to be something it's not. 


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  1. Matt Asay said, on February 27th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

    Is this a coffee shop that is even remotely interesting? Here’s just the last few minutes of Twit/ter.

    # Dawn Foster (geekygirldawn): Hi, My is Dawn and I have a serious peanut butter pretzel addiction. … Damn those Jive break room snacks.
    –posted Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 3:20 p.m. PT (permalink)
    # SamLawrence Sam Lawrence (SamLawrence): Almost done with the top female blogger clouds. Super interesting. :)
    –posted Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 3:05 p.m. PT (permalink)
    # markgross markgross (markgross): wondering why the network is so sloooow at the meeting I’m in.
    –posted Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 2:56 p.m. PT (permalink)
    # cote Michael Coté (cote): Done recording a new Sun Identity Buzz episode. Today’s not up, but here’s past: http://tinyurl.com/29khj4
    –posted Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 2:56 p.m. PT (permalink)
    # gnat Nat Torkington (gnat): watching a large pleasure boat doing donuts in the harbour. Novice pilot, methinks.
    –posted Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 2:53 p.m. PT (permalink)
    # t Tantek Çelik (t): what @trammell said. if you are going to SXSW, pack your climbing shoes and join us: http://geeksloveclimbing.com/
    –posted Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 2:53 p.m. PT (permalink)
    # factoryjoe Chris Messina (factoryjoe): Huh, Stephen Hawking has shown up! #TED
    –posted Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 2:53 p.m. PT (permalink)
    # Theory David Wheeler (Theory): @selenamarie It’s about 1/3 what it should be just on the ethernet network, which makes me suspect the router.
    –posted Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 2:48 p.m. PT (permalink)
    # selenamarie Selena Deckelmann (selenamarie): @theory you tell me because my airport sux too.

  2. Stormy said, on February 27th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

    I created my own coffee shop in Twitter and I like it. The Pulse of Open Source might be the coffee shop for some or it might show what a coffee shop could look like for those interested in creating their own.

  3. Open Source Micro-Blogging: The Pulse of Open Source, by Raven Zachary | Commercial Open Source Software said, on April 30th, 2008 at 5:11 am

    […] Just as Raven I was also initially skeptical of this service, a sort of micro-blogging (140 characters or less) to share tiny URLs and no much more. But I was proven wrong, as Stormy Peters pointed out twitter could well be your cup of coffee, maybe also Matt Asay will change his mind at some time. One of the things I have found useful about Twitter besides following close friends is following people in my profession. The more I looked, the more interesting participants in the open source community I found on Twitter. […]