Twitter - Learning 2.0 #19

I set up my Twitter account a little over a year ago, but it was not until recently that I saw the true potential of this micro-blogging site. What seemed at first to be just a dump for the things that people say they are doing slowly showed itself to have a much more potent function. I fully grasped this when Phish went back on tour. If there is ever a web 3.0 crowd, it's a bunch of phans uploading every detail they can from the tour circuit.

Using conversations (donoted by a # followed by a term - e.g., #IranElection), Twitter users don't necessarily follow only what their friends are saying, they are following what anyone is saying on a topic. This is the true power of Twitter. Librarians are also finding interesting ways to use Twitter by starting and updating conversations during conference sessions. There are countless ways this could be used in libraries internally and externally (brainstorming sessions, announcing programs and services to followers, learning from other libraries).

Of course, don't use my profile as an example because I use it all wrong. For the life of me, I can't seem to figure out how to stop sending my blog updates to my Twitter page. Perhaps I'll work on that next...