Okay, this is getting to be a big enough thing that I’d better have SOMEthing on my blog about it. Twitter is sort of a “micro-blogging” system. Micro because each entry is limited to 140 characters. That really gets you thinking about your word usage. :-)
I’m not real big into Twitter. Mainly because it’s still pretty clunky and all the decent functionality seems to reside in outside programs that individuals have written with the Twitter API. Within the system you can’t even search for a friend. It’s REALLY hard and awkward to find a friend and add them. There are some tools, as I said, that people have created to help remedy that, but a decent social networking system should take some of those basic things on themselves.

Mostly, Twitter is about answering the question, “What are you doing?” It’s a way to stay in touch with other people without having to write long blog articles. Most of the entries (called “Tweets”) that people write are really NOT very interesting to people who aren’t close friends with them. Things like “I just woke up and really need a cup of coffee” show up a lot, and, frankly, I could hardly care less that somebody in New Jersey is having a hard time waking up.

That being said, there ARE some interesting uses that people are starting to put to Twitter. My favorite is TwitterLit, which each day posts one opening line of a book. No attribution or citation. Just the first sentence of a book. Of course, the entries also have links to Amazon records, so you can find out who wrote it and what book it’s from. Since the link takes you to Amazon through their Amazon Associates link, anybody who buys a book linked through Twitter generates income for the TwitterLit people. Great example of capitalism along with using a new technology to support and further literacy in general and books in particular.

Other interesting uses are posting daily quotes from comedians, etc. Sounds like the only way to keep a Twitter account regularly interesting is to take quotes from other people. :-) Otherwise, for most people it requires some serious work adding (and FINDING) friends and getting people to add you before it gets really useful.

Here are some interesting links with discussions about Twitter or lists of Twitter tools:
Library Clips: Twitter Roundup
Twitter Fan Wiki (and list of Apps)
Welcome to the Twitterverse (from the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase)
5 Ways to Use Twitter for Good
Twitter Support (Help)