And Thou shalt have the Twitter

It's funny as to how sometimes small but inspiring ideas change the status quo so much that they become in themselves a powerful word- and many a times they get to make an entry in the lexicon. Now who isn't interested in telling his near and dear ones, barring perhaps the employee to his boss, what he or she is doing. A simple idea.And who doesn't like sms service- writing a short message that conveys the essentials without worrying the writer or the reader.Another simple idea. And who doesn't like the digital technology-always on,always live, ever knowing.And the power of numbers on a common platform. Add all these ideas and what do you get? Well a powerful idea that goes by the name Twitter.Now if you haven't heard about it, it's time you picked yourself up and dust yourself and start keeping your eyes & ears open.

Twitter in it's simplest definition is a microblogging service, whein you answer one fundamental question within 140 words "what are you doing?".Sounds boring for all its hype, doesn't it? Well not if you are in tune with modern times and have used the service. Now for the starting story, its better if you hear it from the horses mouth at the following url: [http://www.140characters.com/2009/01/30/how-twitter-was-born/]

In the start what was fun morphed into something serious when the state department asked Twitter to put off maintenance that would have temporarily cut off service, so that news from Iran could come out.A small sample from the twitter:

jadi: We can hear shootings.. many shoots. People are still shouting Allaho Akbar and Down With Dictator and “Mousavi/Karroubi where is my vote?” Tehran 2 minutes ago from choqoK

JomhuriyeIran: RT @nansen “The Revolution will be Twittered”. http://bit.ly/xJxyc (expand) #Iranelection #CNNfail #FoxNewsFail #MSMfail Tehran 5 minutes ago from web

mkhanjani: Now people loudly say “Alah o Akbar” (God is Great) from their home windows to show their protest againt cheating in election Tehran 7 minutes ago from web

parhamdoustdar: Going out to join the croud, with my mother guiding me. I will fill you in on the details soon! Sit tight! #iranElection Tehran, Iran 13 minutes ago from web

angry_lion: im going to take part in protests. i come back to the twitter if i would stay alive. Tehran, Iran 19 minutes ago from web

Students & people fighting back a large group of police & Basij right now at university of physics! I’m going to join them. #iranelection about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox

Imagine all that live and in real time.That's when you start respecting this service. Twitter also produced eyewitness accounts of the Mumbai terrorist attacks last year. And when the US Airways jetliner crashed into New York's Hudson River, Twitter was among the first places photos of the landing were linked. It's changing the landscape of media in the developed countries. It is emerging as new place for citizen reporting instead of the normal media. There in is its biggest strength as well as weakness. Why weakness? Because it is not inveztigative journalism.Any news is so fast to spread on twitter that it can't be confirmed.One only has to look at the daily rumors spread on twitter to know the extent of the problem. Imagine the case of Patrick Swayze,currently battling pancreatic cancer, who had to defend that he is still alive after thousands of Twitter users spread the news that he was dead.

Next in line is the concept of instant free marketing.No designing web pages,no hosting servers, just plain proposition in 140 short words.What can you do with 140 characters or less, the length of each tweet? A lot, restaurants are discovering - everything from posting daily specials to luring followers with offers of free appetizers to offering a glimpse of kitchen life. It’s all good for business.

It's also a trending site. Search for any word and find real time access to what people are saying about it.No need to read the lengthy reports, just 140 character and you know what the person's view about the product, service or trend are. Just search onto any trend and find the power of numbers & brevity take your breadth away.

Though it is a new service (what 2 years old!) and is yet to gain popularity all over the world but imagine the potential when almost anyone can come online and give vent to his voice without the need to make complex sentences and showing complicated ideas : Just type like sms, in broken english and bingo your voice is on a equal footing with other digital natives. It should be the next great leveler.

And people who ignore Twitter will do so at their own risk.