OK things are starting to get interesting! I got a twitter from MC Hammer today leading me to an article about how newspapers are allegedly falsifying their readership figures. Ashton Kutcher told me about a phone battery that charges in ten seconds, I got to ask President Obama why America sends $6.8m every day to a country with a 6.3% unemployment rate and I received a note full of love from Yoko Ono.
I love Twitter, I follow people I admire but don’t know, I follow people I know and admire who have interesting things to say and know who to follow and I follow them, sounds compicated but it really is fun!
One of my stalking targets is Jodee Rich - regardless of what happened with One Tel, anyone who started a youth oriented phone company in 1995 surely knows what’s coming! From what I can guess from the tweets (he’s not following me alas) he’s team leader for a thing called People browsr, it looks like it’s still in development, and I’m a creative not a geek so I couldn’t get the beginners guide to begin, so I still don’t know what it’s all about, however methinks it goes something like this…
Yesterday Ashton (who, I hope is getting a massive cheque from twitter) asked the question about how they will determine search relevance. I twittered back saying that he had become a browser far sexier than google could ever be.
Now in this instance I’m a reluctant early adopter, I haven’t watched the news or bought a newspaper since my children were born, I didn’t want them exposed to violence and propaganda. For the first few years I relied on a glimpse of the front page at the shop next door and a copy of Who weekly and conversations with my friends.
As the internet started speeding up I got everything from youtube and the Sydney Morning Herald’s website, then myspace and facebook expanded the friends to chat with. I never once felt left out.
A few weeks ago my eldest daughter became the youngest ever finalist in tropfest jnr, after all the media calls we watched the news and Ella joked that the news should only be watched when you’re on it.
I put it on IQ to record and then sat and watched it live – I wish I hadn’t, Ella’s story was a fluff piece at the end, so I sat through 25 excruciatingly long minutes to learn things I had discovered in 25 seconds earlier on the net. I don’t have the time for that crap!
Nor do I need Who weekly, now I can see Demi Moore bending over to steam her husband’s suit or in a helicopter on the set of Ashton’s latest film, why would I want to buy a magazine with photos of her running from a mob? I think all the celebrities on twitter deserve the Princess Diana bravery award. Madonna and Angelina – where are you?
The other morning my internet was down, so I went to the local Mcafé for the wireless, there was a big tv screen with a very serious presenter telling us how they were with us during the tough times and they know how hard we’re doing it.
On the smaller screen in front of me John Cleese was preparing to tweet. I spent the next ten minutes enjoying true irony and compete nonsense.
We’re hearing so much about global financial crisis in the media, yet see so much opportunity on line. Yes people are hurting, but I fear the media has the most to fear.
As I write this I find a twitter path to the birth of a friend’s daughter, it’s like a live satellite cross to a world changing event.
And it’s one of joy not destruction, how could any other news service compete?