I have been thinking alot about Twitter and "ambiant intimacy..."
First - I object to the term, since it is not intimacy at all. Knowing what you are up to does not intimacy make. The term is completely wrong - unless we redefine intimacy as nothing more that knowing whats going on in each others lives. I am starting to see value in Twitter - to keep in touch with people, know what they are up to, have a place to start a conversation - but this is not intimacy - this is shallow friendship. This is a place from which to have Real conversations, but it is not the conversation itself, and we should not confuse the two. An aparatif before dinner is not dinner. Twitter is just an aparatif, nothing more. On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 7:40 AM, David Malouf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > AJ I think your problem is the way you are thinking about using > Twitter. The term "ambient intimacy" has been thrown about (coined > by Leisa Reichtl) to describe what Twitter, Jaiku, and similar > micro-blogging services are all about. So what does that mean? Well, > basically it is ambient. It is about being in the presence of, and > about getting slices of a view into a person's life. > > For example, my buddy Daniel Szuc and I have met maybe 2 times in > person (him being in Hong Kong ::waving to Daniel:: and me being in > NY). But I use twitter as a means not exactly of keeping in touch, > b/c we don't really do a lot of back and forth, but just keeping > "aware" of his life. The more he and I put on the twitter space > (during times when the other is awake) the more we increase our > awareness of the other. > > Daniel gets clues into the goings ons of my life in ways that even my > friends down the street who aren't on Twitter get. > > This to me is the main purpose of Twitter. > > Now, I'm going to contrast that to my relationship with David Armano > and Whitney Hess (::waving to them::, but they are much closer > geographically--chicago and ny respectively). > > They use Twitter as a means to promote themselves, network for > business, and even to create and engage in "conversations", but in > a more robust way than simply their full-on blogs can do. They do > intermingle that with the personal ambient intimacy stuff as well. > > Ways that they use it are: > 1. posting links to their own blog > 2. posting links to items of interest > 3. announcing where they will be (like events that night, that week) > 4. asking questions, like polls and surveys around ideas they are > thinking about > 5. posting short ideas to get feedback, or not get feedback, but > feedback is usually coming whether they like it or not > > Other things I've seen Twitter used for are: > 1. Letting people know about traffic or airport delays > 2. Finding people at an airport you are delayed in > > But the real gist is just "noise", if you want to call it that. > It's the ramblings of people. > > I find the whole notion of "searching" twitter or tagging it to be > weird. Now tracking specific topics using the # sign and track makes > sense to me. But this is something I turn on and off usually related > to events I'm attending or not attending. > > Usually any conversations that do exist are not the primary intention > of the "starting tweet", but just "feedback" that someone feels > the need to express. > > -- dave > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from the new ixda.org > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=29042 > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- ~ will "Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are design problems" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Will Evans | User Experience Architect tel +1.617.281.1281 | [EMAIL PROTECTED] twitter: https://twitter.com/semanticwill --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
