(or my dailyKos advertisement for Twitter)
Relevance.
One word.
And I am not describing twitter itself. I am describing the content on Twitter.
And by content - I mean the real nuts and bolts tweets from legitimate sources.
For me, legitimacy comes in the form of Mark Knoller, Ana Marie Cox, Jeff Jarvis, Liberalchik, Ethan Suplee, Markos to name a few.
After a few followfridays you will have a nice stable of journos, artists, friends, and commentators that will do their best to keep you abreast of the days happenings.
Now on to what Twitter has done.
Take this Iran thing. (I use "thing" because this is not a revolution, it is just a strong disagreement - a really strong brutal disagreement with plenty of passion and courage and big brother to go around)
This Iran thing has caused the people on twitter to see the light.
News doesn't happen in cycles. Friday dumps are quickly not becoming dumps but issues that get dissected over a weekend.
Need an example?
Twitter users who I follow were enraged that MSNBC would not break their weekend programming to bring the Iran thing to us first hand. We were all hanging on Schusters twitter commentary and 30 second clips in between commercials.
Beyond that - on twitter the story didn't get replayed ala CNN. CNN replayed most of the Saturday coverage on Sunday while Twitter users were actively trying to vet first hand tweets and videos coming out of Iran.
This past weekend is a microcosm of why newspapers are in the toilet and cable news is the butt of many jokes. Twitter doesn't replay. If you need a replay you can scroll down. Twitter also doesn't wait for hours to pass to report on the news. Follow the trending topics, Twitter users get the word spread more quickly than most people realize.
Saturday Bill Maher (or his staff) posted a sad little joke on his Facebook page how Twitter didn't save Iran - Iran saved Twitter. More appropriately, Twitter is going to be the knife in the heart of many news outlets and pundits alike.
CNN's Saturday coverage included the talking heads on the station marveling at how quickly Twitter seems to be updating.
Twitter, if set up properly, is a real time news ticker that can be custom made to each individuals preferences with real up to date relevant information that you don't have to scour the internet for, surf mindlessly on the TV for, or wait a day to not see in your local paper.
And one last thing - go easy on me - I am no longer in the tech business and am currently in the roadway construction business and I am in no way a writer.
I believe this is my third diary post and I am in no way a writer or journalist - to borrow my friend Mark's FB info which is more relevant to me and my postings: "Local Idiot About To Post Comment On Internet"